hyliota

{{Short description|Genus of birds}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Violet-backed Hyliota - Ghana S4E2360 (19301573301).jpg

| image_caption = Violet-backed hyliota (Hyliota violacea)

| taxon = Hyliota

| authority = Swainson, 1837

| type_species = Hyliota flavigaster{{cite web |url= https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=198 |title= Hyliotidae |author= |date= |website= aviansystematics.org |publisher= The Trust for Avian Systematics |access-date= 2023-07-16}}

| type_species_authority = Swainson, 1837

}}

The hyliotas are a genus, Hyliota, of passerine bird from Africa. The taxonomic position of the genus has been a longstanding mystery. They have been formerly regarded as Old World warblers in the family Sylviidae, or related to the batises and wattle-eyes in the family Platysteiridae, bush-shrikes in the family Malaconotidae, or even Old-World flycatchers in the family Muscicapidae. An analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of the genus and possible relatives found they have no close relatives and are basal in the clade Passerida. They are now often regarded as a family in their own right, Hyliotidae.{{cite journal|last=Fuchs|first=Jérôme|title=The African warbler genus Hyliota as a lost lineage in the Oscine songbird tree: Molecular support for an African origin of the Passerida|journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |year=2006 |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=186–197 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2005.07.020|display-authors=etal |pmid=16182572|bibcode=2006MolPE..39..186F }}

The hyliotas are found in the canopy of broad-leaf forests. They usually do not live in groups but will join mixed-species feeding flocks with other species. They are territorial and pairs are monogamous, nesting in camouflaged woven nests.