''Hydrornis'' is a

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 ...

pitta Pittas are a family, Pittidae, of passerine birds found in Asia, Australasia and Africa. There are thought to be 40 to 42 species of pittas, all similar in general appearance and habits. The pittas are Old World suboscines, and their closest ...

in the family Pittidae. The genus contains thirteen species, found in South-east Asia. The genus was formerly merged with the genus ''

Pitta Pittas are a family, Pittidae, of passerine birds found in Asia, Australasia and Africa. There are thought to be 40 to 42 species of pittas, all similar in general appearance and habits. The pittas are Old World suboscines, and their closest ...

'', but a 2006 study split the family into three genera.

Taxonomy

The pittas were at one time all usually placed in the genus ''

'', the only genus in the family Pittidae, but when a 2006 molecular phylogenetic study found that the pittas formed three separate groups, the genus was split and some species were moved into two resurrected genera, ''

Erythropitta 250px, Black-crowned pitta (''E. ussheri'') uttering whistles from a perch in Danum Valley, Sabah ''Erythropitta'' is a genus of pitta. The members of the genus are found mostly in South-east Asia, with one species, the Papuan pitta, ranging in ...

'' and ''Hydrornis''. The genus ''Hydrornis'' had been introduced by the English zoologist Edward Blyth in 1843 with the blue-naped pitta (''Hydrornis nipalensis'') as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

. The name ''Hydrornis'' 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 ...

words "water" and "bird". The pittas in ''Hydrornis'' have

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

plumage, a feature that is absent for all other pittas. Also for those species that have been studied, the juveniles have a spotted cryptic plumage.

Species

The genus contains 13 species:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2292470 Bird genera Birds of Southeast Asia Taxa named by Edward Blyth