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The melampittas are a family, Melampittidae, of birds containing two enigmatic species. The two species are found in two genera, the greater melampitta in the genus Megalampitta and the lesser melampitta in the genus Melampitta. They are little studied and before being established as a family in 2014 their taxonomic relationships with other birds were uncertain, being considered at one time related variously to the , Old World babblers and bird-of-paradise.
These are small to medium-sized birds with black plumage, strong legs and short, rounded wings. Mostly terrestrial, they live in montane forest. The greater melampitta has more specific habitat needs, roosting and nesting in limestone sinkholes. Insects and small vertebrates are taken from the forest leaf litter. Little is known about their breeding behaviour, with only the nests of the lesser melampitta having been seen by scientists. Both species are considered to be safe from extinction.
Based on the analysis of DNA–DNA hybridization data the genus was placed with the Paradisaeidae birds of paradise by Charles Sibley and Jon E. Ahlquist. Frith and Frith felt these conclusions were not supported by aspects of the behaviour and biology (although they argued it may have been related to the recently split Cnemophilidae birds of paradise). More recent studies have refuted the relationship with the whipbirds and jewel-babblers, and instead consistently shown a relationship as the sister taxa to a group of families including the , , monarch flycatchers, Corcoracidae (the white-winged chough and apostlebird of Australia) and the birds of paradise again. The fact that the melampittas do not closely resemble these families (except the Corcoracidae and to a lesser extent the birds of paradise) may be due to adaptations to terrestrial living, compared to the other families which are mostly arboreal. Given the distinctiveness of the two melampittas it was suggested that the genus be placed its own family, and a new family, Melampittidae, was formally erected in 2014 by Richard Schodde and Leslie Christidis.
While most researchers also accepted that the two species are congeneric (are both in the same genus), the two species do have a number of differences, particularly size, tail length and calls. In 2014, in the same paper that established the family, Schodde and Christidis moved the greater melampitta into its own genus Megalampitta. Although the name was created to invoke the Greek mega for large and Melampitta for the genus, the authors of the paper stated that, per the Code for Nomenclature, it should be treated a random collection of letters. The authors also noted that it is possible that the two species may be separated into two families in the future.
The greater melampitta is monotypic, meaning it has no subspecies. The lesser melampitta has had three subspecies described, distinguished by slight differences in measurements, so more recent treatments have also treated it as monotypic. A study published in 2024 confirmed that the greater melampitta is indeed monotypic, with all birds forming a single population, even as they are highly dispersed. The lesser melampitta showed deep divisions between the three populations, leading the researchers to suggest that it may represent three different species.
The distribution of the lesser melampitta is consistent with the usual pattern of evolution in birds in New Guinea, with older species of birds inhabiting the highlands which act as refugia, a phenomenon known as . The distribution of the greater melampitta is harder to explain, as it is also an ancient species, but is found at lower altitudes. The greater melampitta also has much more isolated populations, but lacks the genetic differentiation between these populations that their isolation and poor dispersal ability would imply.
The plumage and general appearance of both sexes in both species are almost identical, with the only difference between sexes being the iris colour in the lesser melampitta, the male having a red iris and the female a brown one. The plumage of adults in both species is black. The plumage of juvenile lesser melampittas is the same as adults except they are brown on the lower body. Juvenile plumage of greater melampitta varies from that of adults in having russet backs and bellies. Several researchers have noted that this resembles the plumage of the hooded pitohui. Hooded pitohuis are unusual for birds in having a toxin, homobatrachotoxin, in their feathers and skin which can cause convulsions and death if consumed. The resemblance is probably an example of Batesian mimicry as the greater melampitta is not itself poisonous.
The lesser melampitta is known to start nesting in the dry season and continue into the beginning of the wet. The nest is a closed dome shape constructed out of live green moss. This makes the melampittas the only bird family in the core Corvoidea that have domed nests instead of cup nests, having evolved from cup nesting ancestors, which is itself a reversal of that group's evolution from the assumed dom-nesting passerine ancestors. The nest that has been described was found from the ground on the side of a tree fern, with nesting material woven into the bark and attached to dead fronds of the tree fern to secure it. Both parents will approach their nest on foot, only flying up to the nest when directly below it, but on leaving they will fly before landing on the ground. The species has also been recording chasing grey-streaked honeyeaters away from their nests. The female lays a single chalky white and slightly speckled egg, which measures , and undertakes all the avian incubation. The incubation is quite long for a small passerine, lasting around 27 days, during which the male will feed the female. Both sexes feed the single chick, which is hatched covered in downy feathers. Unlike their relatives in the birds of paradise family, which feed their chicks by regurgitation, the parents feed the chick whole food that has not been swallowed. The chick takes up to 35 days to fledge, a long time for passerines.
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