Orthonychidae

Logrunners
Male Australian logrunner
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Orthonychidae G.R. Gray, 1840
Genus:	Orthonyx Temminck, 1820
Type species
Orthonyx temminckii[1] Ranzani, 1822
Species
Orthonyx novaeguineae Orthonyx temminckii Orthonyx spaldingii

Orthonychidae is a clade of passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. It encompasses the genus Orthonyx, including the logrunners and the chowdilla. Some authorities consider the Australian family Cinclosomatidae to be part of the Orthonychidae. The three species use their stiffened tails to brace themselves when feeding.

The Australian logrunner, Orthonyx temminckii, is from northeastern New South Wales and southeast Queensland, where it is very local in its distribution, and strictly terrestrial in its habits. The wings are barred with white, and the chin, throat and breast are in the male pure white, but of a bright reddish-orange in the female. The remiges are very short, rounded and much incurved, showing a bird of weak flight. The rectrices are very broad, the shafts stiff, and towards the tip divested of barbs.^[2] The population which is found locally in New Guinea is now generally considered a separate species, the Papuan logrunner, Orthonyx novaeguineae.

The chowchilla, Orthonyx spaldingii, from north-east Queensland, is much larger than either species of logrunner, and has a jet-black plumage, the throat being white in the male and orange-rufous in the female.^[2]