Calliope (genus)

Calliope is a genus of passerine birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.

Calliope
Male Siberian rubythroat (Calliope calliope)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Muscicapidae
Subfamily:	Saxicolinae
Genus:	Calliope Gould, 1836
Type species
Calliope lathamii[1] Gould, 1836

The species were previously placed in the genus Luscinia. A large molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 found that Luscinia as defined in 2003 by Edward C. Dickinson was not monophyletic.^[2][3] The genus Calliope, with the type species, Calliope calliope, was reinstated to accommodate a well-defined clade.^[4][5] Although the blackthroat (Calliope obscura) had not been included in the 2010 phylogenetic analysis, a subsequent study found that the firethroat and the blackthroat were sister species and not colour morphs of the same species as some publications had previously suggested.^[6]

The genus Calliope was introduced by the English ornithologist John Gould in 1836.^[7][8] Calliope, from classical Greek meaning beautiful-voiced, was one of the muses in Greek mythology and presided over eloquence and heroic poetry.^[9]

The genus contains the following five species:^[4]

• Himalayan rubythroat (Calliope pectoralis)
• Chinese rubythroat (Calliope tschebaiewi) - formerly considered as a subspecies of the Himalayan rubythroat
• Siberian rubythroat (Calliope calliope)
• Firethroat (Calliope pectardens)
• Blackthroat (Calliope obscura)