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Phoenicurus

Genus of birds From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Phoenicurus
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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] 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.[3][4]

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The species in the genus exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism. Pictured are a male (left) and a female Daurian redstart

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Type species ...

The genus Phoenicurus was introduced by the English naturalist Thomas Forster in 1817.[5] The type species (by tautonymy) is the common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus).[6] The name Phoenicurus is from Ancient Greek φοινιξ (phoinix), "(Phoenician) crimson/purple" (see also Tyrian purple), and ουροσ (-ouros) -"tailed".[7]

The genus contains the following species:[4]

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Fossil record

  • Phoenicurus erikai (Pliocene of Csarnota, Hungary).[8]
  • Phoenicurus baranensis (Pliocene of Beremend, Hungary).[8]

References

Further reading

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