The genus ''Brachypodius'' is a small genus of

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5000 ...

s in the bulbul family,

Pycnonotidae The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropical ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Brachypodius'' was introduced in 1845 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth to accommodate the

black-headed bulbul The black-headed bulbul (''Brachypodius melanocephalos'') is a member of the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found in forests in south-eastern Asia. Taxonomy and systematics The black-headed bulbul was originally described in the genus ''T ...

. The word ''Brachypodius'' combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''brakhus'' meaning "short" with ''pous, podos'' meaning "foot". A molecular phylogenetic study of the bulbul family published in 2017 found that ''Pycnonotus'' was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

. In the revision to create monophyletic genera ''Brachypodius'' was resurrected to contain four species that were previously placed in ''Pycnonotus''. The genus contains four species: *

Grey-headed bulbul The grey-headed bulbul (''Brachypodius priocephalus'') is a member of the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is endemic to the Western Ghats in south-western India, and found from Goa south to Tamil Nadu at altitudes up to 1200m. It is found in ...

(''Brachypodius priocephalus'') *

Black-headed bulbul The black-headed bulbul (''Brachypodius melanocephalos'') is a member of the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found in forests in south-eastern Asia. Taxonomy and systematics The black-headed bulbul was originally described in the genus ''T ...

(''Brachypodius melanocephalos'') * Andaman bulbul (''Brachypodius fuscoflavescens'') * Blue-wattled bulbul (''Brachypodius nieuwenhuisii'')

References

{{Pycnonotidae-stub Brachypodius Taxa named by Edward Blyth