The Mesitornithidae is largely a family comprising of birds of a medium size characteristically brown from above, while barred, spotted or plain from down below. These birds have quite long tails, medium-high, de-curved bills, hallux that is well developed and short wings. The birds are largely terrestrial and fly rarely.

Habitat

Their habitat is mainly scrubs and forests, and they eat seeds fruits and insects, mainly nesting on bushes and low trees. They have two genera and about three species, all confined within Madagascar.

They are also placed mostly in the order Gruiformes, comprising of allies, cranes and rails, although this has been under dispute mostly in recent times. The mesitornithae are largely the only family that has a number exceeding two species where each and every species is under threat. Generally, all the three have been in the books of vulnerable species and are largely expected to start declining largely in the next two decades.

The mesites are scrub and birds that eat seeds and insects. For the white and brow breasted type, it forages the ground as well as gleaning insects all the way from leaves as well as under them and in low vegetation. For the mesite found in –sub-desert habitats, it usually uses the long bills it has to probe the immediate soil. For other birds such as the flycatchers and drongos, they follow the mesites in an act of catching insects that they have flushed.

The mesites are also vocal birds, where they have calls that are just like passerine songs largely as a defense mechanism. They lay their two or even three eggs in stick-nests located in low branches or bushes. For the mesitornis species, they are largely monogamous, while the Monias benschi is aptly polygamous and unlike others depict sexual dichromatism significantly.

Mesitornithidae in History

In history, the mesites are largely allied to dippers and doves. There is a very strong indication that they might be indeed very close to columbiformes. Other purported distant relatives include the Sunbittern and Kagu Gruiformes. This is because of some interesting facts, where the Kagu and Sunbittern were remarkably and tentatively put within the Gruiformes, where all originated from Gondwana land.

Just like the mesites, the Sunbittern and Kagu are some of the few birds with powder down. However, the data that seems to suggest the older Gruiformes, doves for instance, are related to the mesites is not enough for anybody to draw a succinct conclusion. There is a probability of being placed within their own order, the mesitornithiformes, something that was done sometimes in the past, but there has not been enough research to give this credibility and recognition. They are such birds that still confuse many whether they are a part of the wider Gruiformes or Mesitornithae, uniquely.