The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small
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 t ...
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s restricted to the
Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...
(
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
), with the exception of several vagrants and two species,
Bluethroat
The bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica'') is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae. It, and similar small Europea ...
(''Luscinia svecica)'' and
Northern Wheatear
The northern wheatear or wheatear (''Oenanthe oenanthe'') is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae. It is the ...
(''Oenanthe oenanthe''), found also in North America. These are mainly small arboreal
insectivore
A robber fly eating a hoverfly
An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects.
The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...
s, many of which, as the name implies, take their
prey
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...
on the wing. The family includes 344 species and is divided into 51
genera
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 nomenclat ...
.
[
]
Taxonomy
The name Muscicapa for the family was introduced by the Scottish naturalist John Fleming in 1822. The word had earlier been used for the genus ''Muscicapa
''Muscicapa'' is a genus of passerine birds belonging to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, and therein to the typical flycatchers of subfamily Muscicapinae. They are widespread across Europe, Africa and Asia with most species occur ...
'' by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson
Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher.
Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works ...
in 1760. Muscicapa comes from the Latin ''musca
Musca () is a small constellation in the deep southern sky. It was one of 12 constellations created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, and it first appeared on a celestial globe in ...
'' meaning a fly and '' capere'' to catch.
In 1910 the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert
Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (29 October 1859 – 11 November 1933) was a widely published German ornithologist.
Life and career
Hartert was born in Hamburg, Germany on 29 October 1859. In July 1891, he married the illustrator Claudia Bernadine E ...
found it impossible to define boundaries between the three families Muscicapidae, Sylviidae
Sylviidae is a family of passerine birds that includes the typical warblers and a number of babblers formerly placed within the Old World babbler family. They are found in Eurasia and Africa.
Taxonomy and systematics
The scientific name Sylvii ...
(Old World warblers) and 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 flycat ...
(thrushes). He therefore treated them as subfamilies of an extended flycatcher family that also included Timaliidae (Old World babblers) and Monarchidae
The monarchs (family Monarchidae) comprise a family of over 100 passerine birds which includes shrikebills, paradise flycatchers, and magpie-larks.
Monarchids are small insectivorous songbirds with long tails. They inhabit forest or woodland a ...
(Monarch flycatchers). Forty years later a similar arrangement was adopted by the American ornithologists Ernst Mayr
Ernst Walter Mayr (; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned Taxonomy (biology), taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, Philosophy of biology, philosopher o ...
and Dean Amadon
Dean Arthur Amadon (June 5, 1912 – January 12, 2003) was an American ornithologist and an authority on birds of prey.
Amadon was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Arthur and Mary Amadon. He received a BS from Hobart College in 1934 and a Ph.D. ...
in an article published in 1951. Their large family Muscicapidae which they termed the "primitive insect eaters" contained 1460 species divided into eight subfamilies. The use of the extended group was endorsed by a committee set up following the Eleventh International Ornithological Congress held in Basel in 1954. Subsequent DNA–DNA hybridization
In genomics, DNA–DNA hybridization is a molecular biology technique that measures the degree of genetic similarity between pools of DNA sequences. It is usually used to determine the genetic distance between two organisms and has been used ex ...
studies by Charles Sibley
Charles Gald Sibley (August 7, 1917 – April 12, 1998) was an American ornithologist and molecular biologist. He had an immense influence on the scientific classification of birds, and the work that Sibley initiated has substantially altered our u ...
and others showed that the subfamilies were not closely related to one another. As a result, the large group was broken up into a number of separate families, although for a while most authorities continued to retain the thrushes in Muscicapidae. In 1998 the American Ornithologists' Union
The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...
chose to treat the thrushes as a separate family in the seventh edition of their ''Check-list of North American birds'' and subsequently most authors have followed their example.[
]
Description
The appearance of these birds is very varied, but they mostly have weak songs and harsh calls. They are small to medium birds, ranging from 9 to 22 cm in length.[del Hoyo, J.; Elliot, A. & Christie D. (editors). (2006). '']Handbook of the Birds of the World
The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...
''. Volume 11: Old World Flycatchers to Old World Warblers. Lynx Edicions. . Many species are dull brown in colour, but the plumage
Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...
of some can be much brighter, especially in the males. Most have broad, flattened bills suited to catching insects in flight, although the few ground-foraging species typically have finer bills.
Old World flycatchers live in almost every environment with a suitable supply of trees, from dense forest to open scrub, and even the montane woodland of 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 100 ...
. The more northerly species migrate south in winter, ensuring a continuous diet of insects.[
Depending on the species, their ]nest
A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materia ...
s are either well-constructed cups placed in a tree or cliff ledge, or simply lining in a pre-existing tree hole. The hole-nesting species tend to lay larger clutches, with an average of eight eggs, rather than just two to five.[
]
Genera
The family formerly included fewer species. At the time of the publication of the third edition of Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World
The ''Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World'' is a book by Richard Howard and Alick Moore which presents a list of the bird species of the world. It was the first single-volume world bird list to include subspecies names, ...
in 2003, the genera ''Myophonus
The whistling thrushes comprise a genus ''Myophonus'' (''Myiophoneus'') of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
They are all medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds. They are all brightly coloured species found in India an ...
'', '' Alethe'', ''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 ...
'' and '' Monticola'' were included in 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 flycat ...
. Subsequent molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that the species in these four genera are more closely related to species in Muscicapidae. As a consequence, these four genera are now placed here. In contrast, the genus ''Cochoa
The cochoas (from ''cocho'', Nepali for '' Cochoa purpurea'') are medium-sized frugivorous, insectivorous and molluscivorous birds in the genus ''Cochoa''. Their bright contrasting plumage patterns, sexual dimorphism and feeding habits made thei ...
'' which was previously placed in Muscicapidae has been shown to belong in Turdidae.[
Two large molecular phylogenetic studies of species within Muscicapidae published in 2010 showed that the genera ''Fraseria'', ''Melaenornis'' and ''Muscicapa'' were non-monophyletic. The authors were unable to propose revised genera as not all the species were sampled and not all the nodes in their phylogenies were strongly supported.][ A subsequent study published in 2016, that included 37 of the 42 Muscicapini species, confirmed that the genera were non-monophyletic and proposed a reorganised arrangement of the species with several new or resurrected genera.
]
List of genera
Muscicapid genera as listed by the International Ornithologists' Union
The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...
with subdivisions proposed by George Sangster
George Sangster is a Dutch ornithologist.
He specialises in taxonomy and has written many articles on this subject for the magazines Dutch Birding
''Dutch Birding'', originally subtitled ''Journal of the Dutch Birding Association'', and curren ...
and colleagues in 2010:[ For a complete list of species, see " List of Old World flycatcher species".
Family Muscicapidae
*'' Alethe''
*Subfamily Muscicapinae ( Fleming, 1822)
**Tribe Copsychini (Sundevall, 1872)
***'' Cercotrichas'' – scrub robins
***'']Copsychus
The magpie-robins or shamas (from ''shama'', Bengali and Hindi for ''C. malabaricus'') are medium-sized insectivorous birds (some also eat berries and other fruit) in the genus ''Copsychus''. They were formerly in the thrush family Turdidae, but ...
'' – magpie-robins or shamas
**Tribe Muscicapini (Fleming, 1822)
***''Fraseria
''Fraseria'' is a genus of passerine birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Fraseria'' was introduced in 1854 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte to accommodate Fraser's forest flycatcher. The ...
'' – forest flycatchers
***'' Myioparus'' – tit-flycatchers
***'' Melaenornis''
***'' Empidornis'' – single species: silverbird
***''Muscicapa
''Muscicapa'' is a genus of passerine birds belonging to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, and therein to the typical flycatchers of subfamily Muscicapinae. They are widespread across Europe, Africa and Asia with most species occur ...
''
*Subfamily Niltavinae (Sangster, Alström, Forsmark and Olsson, 2010)
**'' Leucoptilon'' – single species: white-tailed flycatcher
**'' Anthipes''
**''Cyornis
''Cyornis'' is a genus of birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae most of which are native to Southeast Asia.
Species
The genus contains the following species:
* Hainan blue flycatcher (''Cyornis hainanus'')
* Pale blue flycatcher ...
''
**''Niltava
''Niltava'' (from ''niltau'', Nepali for ''N. sundara'') is a genus of passerine birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
The genus contains the following seven species:
* Fujian niltava (''Niltava davidi'')
* Rufous-bellied ni ...
''
**''Cyanoptila
''Cyanoptila'' is a genus of passerine birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
It contains the following species:
* Blue-and-white flycatcher
The blue-and-white flycatcher (''Cyanoptila cyanomelana'') is a migratory songbird ...
''
**''Eumyias
''Eumyias'' is a genus of birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
It contains the following 11 species:
* Timor blue flycatcher (''Eumyias hyacinthinus'') – formerly placed in ''Cyornis''
* Blue-fronted blue flycatcher (''Eum ...
''
**''Sholicola
''Sholicola'' is a genus of bird in the family Muscicapidae that was erected in 2017. They are commonly referred to as sholakilis. The two species placed in this genus endemic to the montane grassland and cloud forest complex known as sholas in ...
''
*Subfamily Erithacinae ( G.R. Gray, 1846) – African forest robin assemblage
**''Erithacus
''Erithacus'' (Greek: "robin" (erithacos)) is a genus of passerine bird that contains a single extant species, the European robin ''(Erithacus rubecula)''. The Japanese robin and Ryukyu robin were also placed in this genus (as ''Erithacus akahige ...
'' – single species: European robin
**'' Chamaetylas'' – (4 species)
**'' Cossyphicula'' – single species: white-bellied robin-chat
**''Cossypha
''Cossypha'' are small insectivorous birds, with most species called robin-chats. They were formerly in the thrush family Turdidae, but are now more often treated as part of the Old World flycatcher Muscicapidae.
These are African woodland dwel ...
'' – robin-chats
**'' Xenocopsychus'' – single species: Angola cave chat
**'' Swynnertonia'' – single species: Swynnerton's robin
**'' Pogonocichla'' – single species: white-starred robin
**''Stiphrornis
The forest robin or orange-breasted forest robin (''Stiphrornis erythrothorax'') is a species of bird from Central and West Africa. It is monotypic in the genus ''Stiphrornis''. It has been placed in the family Turdidae, but is now generally plac ...
'' – single species: forest robin
**'' Sheppardia'' – akalats
**''Cichladusa
The palm thrushes are medium-sized insectivorous birds in the genus ''Cichladusa''. They were formerly in the thrush family Turdidae, but are now treated as part of the Old World flycatcher Muscicapidae.
These are tropical African species which ...
'' – palm thrushes
*Subfamily Saxicolinae
Chats (formerly sometimes known as "chat-thrushes") are a group of small Old World insectivorous bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the ...
( Vigors, 1825)
**'' Heinrichia'' – single species: great shortwing
**'' Leonardina'' – single species: Bagobo babbler
**''Heteroxenicus
Gould's shortwing (''Heteroxenicus stellatus'') is a small species of passerine bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in the Himalayas (mainly Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Bhutan), Yunnan and northern parts of Myanmar and Vietnam. It breeds in ...
'' – single species: Gould's shortwing
**''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 ...
'' – shortwings
**''Vauriella
''Vauriella'' is a genus of birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae that occur in Borneo and the Philippines.
The species were previously placed in the genus ''Rhinomyias'' but were moved to ''Vauriella'' when a detailed molecular ...
''
**''Larvivora
''Larvivora'' is a genus of small passerine birds belonging to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae that occur in central and eastern Asia.
The seven species in this genus were all previously placed in other genera. A large molecular phy ...
'' – East and South-East Asian robins
**''Luscinia
''Luscinia '' is a genus of smallish passerine birds, containing the nightingales and relatives. Formerly classed as members of the thrush family Turdidae, they are now considered to be Old World flycatchers (Muscicapidae) of the chat subfamily ...
'' – nightingales and relatives
**'' Irania'' – single species: white-throated robin
**''Calliope
In Greek mythology, Calliope ( ; grc, Καλλιόπη, Kalliópē, beautiful-voiced) is the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muse ...
''
**''Myiomela
''Myiomela'' is a genus of 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 ...
''
**''Tarsiger
''Tarsiger'' is a genus of six species of birds in the family Muscicapidae. They are small, mostly brightly coloured insectivorous birds native to Asia and (one species) northeastern Europe; four of the six species are confined to the Sino-Himala ...
'' – bush robins and bluetails
**'' Enicurus'' – forktails
**''Myophonus
The whistling thrushes comprise a genus ''Myophonus'' (''Myiophoneus'') of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
They are all medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds. They are all brightly coloured species found in India an ...
'' – whistling thrushes
**'' Cinclidium'' – single species: blue-fronted robin
**''Ficedula
The ''Ficedula'' flycatchers are a genus of Old World flycatchers. The genus is the largest in the family, containing around thirty species. They have sometimes been included in the genus ''Muscicapa''. The genus is found in Europe, Asia and Afr ...
'' – flycatchers
**''Phoenicurus
''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 insectivor ...
'' – redstarts
**'' Monticola'' – rock thrushes
**''Saxicola
''Saxicola'' (Latin: ''saxum'', rock + ''incola'', dwelling in.), the stonechats or chats, is a genus of 15 species of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World. They are insectivores occurring in open scrubland and grassland with scatte ...
'' – stonechats and chats
**'' Campicoloides'' – single species: buff-streaked chat
**'' Emarginata''
**'' Pinarochroa'' – single species: moorland chat
**''Thamnolaea
''Thamnolaea'' is a small genus of passerine birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, consisting of two closely related species. They are native to sub-Saharan Africa, where they occur in monogamous, territorial pairs along lightly ...
'' – cliff chats
**''Myrmecocichla
''Myrmecocichla'' is a genus of passerine birds in the Old World chat and flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
The genus contains the following species:
* Sooty chat (''Myrmecocichla nigra'')
* Anteater chat (''Myrmecocichla aethiops'')
* Congo m ...
''
**'' Oenanthe'' – wheatears
*Subfamily not determined
**'' Namibornis'' – single species: Herero chat
**'' Humblotia'' – single species: Humblot's flycatcher
Notes
References
Further reading
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*
*
*
External links
Old World flycatcher videos
on the Internet Bird Collection
*
*
{{Authority control
*
Taxa named by John Fleming (naturalist)