Gracupica
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gracupica is a genus of Asian birds in the family Sturnidae. It is sometimes merged with Sturnus or Sturnia.
| Gracupica | |
|---|---|
| |
| Black-collared starling (Gracupica nigricollis) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Sturnidae |
| Genus: | Gracupica Lesson, 1831 |
| Type species | |
| Gracula melanoleuca[1] = Gracula nigricollis Lesson, 1831 | |
Taxonomy
The genus Gracupica was introduced in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson to accommodate the black-collared starling which is therefore the type species.[2][3] The genus name combines the Latin graculus meaning "jackdaw" with pica meaning "magpie".[4]
Species
The genus contains four species.[5]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Gracupica nigricollis | Black-collared starling | Brunei, Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam |
 | Gracupica contra | Indian pied myna | Indian subcontinent |
 |
Gracupica floweri | Siamese pied myna | mainland Southeast Asia |
_on_feeder,_Gembira_Loka_Zoo,_Yogyakarta,_2015-03-15.jpg) |
Gracupica jalla | Javan pied myna | southern Sumatra, Java, and Bali |
A 2021 study found that G. contra represents a species complex of 3 distinct species formerly thought to be subspecies of G. contra: the Indian pied myna (G. contra sensu stricto) from most of the Indian Subcontinent, Myanmar, and Yunnan in China; the Siamese pied myna (G. floweri) from Thailand and Cambodia, and the possibly extinct in the wild Javan pied myna (G. jalla), historically known from Java and Bali in Indonesia.[6] The International Ornithological Congress has accepted these results.[7]
