Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Phoenicurus
Genus of birds From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
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]

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]
- 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)
Remove ads
Fossil record
References
Further reading
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads