Phoenicurus
Genus of birds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Phoenicurus is a genus of passerine birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, native to Europe, Asia and Africa. They are named redstarts from their orange-red tails ('start' is an old name for a tail). They are small insectivores, the males mostly brightly coloured in various combinations of red, blue, white, and black, the females light brown with a red tail.[2]
| Phoenicurus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Muscicapidae |
| Subfamily: | Saxicolinae |
| Genus: | Phoenicurus Forster, T, 1817 |
| Type species | |
| Phoenicurus ruticilla[1] = Motacilla phoenicurus T. Forster, 1817 | |
Taxonomy
The genus Phoenicurus was introduced by the English naturalist Thomas Forster in 1817 with the type species (by tautonymy) as the common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus).[3][4] The name Phoenicurus is from Ancient Greek φοινιξ (phoinix), "(Phoenician) crimson/purple" (see also Tyrian purple), and ουροσ (-ouros) -"tailed".[5] A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 led to a reorganization of the Old World flycatchers family in which the two species in Rhyacornis and the single species in Chaimarrornis were merged into Phoenicurus.[6][7]
The genus contains the following species:[7]
- Przevalski's redstart (Phoenicurus alaschanicus)
- Eversmann's redstart (Phoenicurus erythronotus)
- Blue-capped redstart (Phoenicurus coeruleocephala)
- Black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros)
- Common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)
- Hodgson's redstart (Phoenicurus hodgsoni)
- White-throated redstart (Phoenicurus schisticeps)
- Daurian redstart (Phoenicurus auroreus)
- Moussier's redstart (Phoenicurus moussieri)
- Güldenstädt's redstart (Phoenicurus erythrogastrus)
- Blue-fronted redstart (Phoenicurus frontalis)
- Plumbeous water redstart (Phoenicurus fuliginosus) (previously in the genus Rhyacornis)
- Luzon water redstart (Phoenicurus bicolor) (previously in the genus Rhyacornis)
- White-capped redstart (Phoenicurus leucocephalus) (previously in the monotypic genus Chaimarrornis)
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