Gould's shortwing (''Heteroxenicus stellatus'') is a small species of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird in the family

Muscicapidae The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and Northe ...

. It is found in the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

(mainly

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Silig ...

and

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

and northern parts of

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. It breeds in the eastern Himalayas in rocky areas above the tree-line and winters at lower altitude in wooded valleys. Gould's shortwing is the only species in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

''Heteroxenicus''. It was formerly placed in the genus ''

Brachypteryx ''Brachypteryx'' is a genus of passerine birds containing six species known as shortwings, that occurs in southeast Asia. Shortwings are small birds with long legs, finely pointed bills, short tails and short rounded wings. They are shy elusive ...

''. The common name commemorates the English ornithologist and bird artist

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

(1804-1881).

Taxonomy

The first formal description of Gould's shortwing was by the English ornithologist and bird artist

in 1868 from a specimen collected in Nepal. He chose the binomial name ''Brachypteryx stellatus''. Gould's shortwing is the only species in the

''Heteroxenicus''. It was formerly placed in the genus

and was assigned to the thrush family

Turdidae The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World fl ...

. The genus ''Heteroxenicus'' had been introduced by

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mo ...

in 1902. The genus name ''Heteroxenicus'' combines the classical Greek words ''heteros'' for "different" and ''xenikos'' for "stranger". The specific epithet ''stellata'' is from the Latin word ''stellatus'' meaning "starry" or "set with stars". There are two subspecies: * ''H. s. stellatus'' (

Gould Gould may refer to: People * Gould (name), a surname Places United States * Gould, Arkansas, a city * Gould, Colorado, an unincorporated community * Gould, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Gould, Oklahoma, a town * Gould, West Virginia, a ...

, 1868) – central Himalayas to south China and northeast Myanmar * ''H. s. fuscus'' ( Delacour & Jabouille, 1930) – northwest Vietnam

Description

Gould's shortwing is in length with a weight of . It is chestnut coloured above and dark grey below with small white spots or stars on its belly. It has long brown legs and a black bill. The sexes are similar. Nothing is known about the nest or the eggs.

References

External links

Xeno-canto: audio recordings of Gould's shortwing
Birds of North India Birds of Bhutan Birds of Myanmar Birds of Vietnam Birds of Yunnan Fauna of Sikkim Gould's shortwing Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Muscicapidae-stub