''Phoenicurus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

passerine birds A passerine () is any bird of the Order (biology), 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 order ...

in the Old World flycatcher 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 Norther ...

, native to

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 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. They are named redstarts from their orange-red tails ('start' is an old name for a tail). They are small

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, the males mostly brightly coloured in various combinations of red, blue, white, and black, the females light brown with a red tail. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

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''. The genus ''Phoenicurus'' was introduced by the English naturalist

Thomas Forster Thomas Forster (1683 – October 1738), of Adderstone Hall, Northumberland, was an English landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1716. He served as a general of the Jacobite army in the 1715 Uprising ...

in 1817. 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 specimen ...

(by

tautonymy A tautonym is a scientific name of a species in which both parts of the name have the same spelling, such as ''Rattus rattus''. The first part of the name is the name of the genus and the second part is referred to as the ''specific epithet'' in ...

) is the

common redstart The common redstart (''Phoenicurus phoenicurus''), or often simply redstart, is a small passerine bird in the genus ''Phoenicurus''. Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, (Turdidae), but is now known to be ...

(''Phoenicurus phoenicurus''). The name ''Phoenicurus'' is from

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 peri ...

φοινιξ (''phoinix''), "(

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

n) crimson/purple" (see also

Tyrian purple Tyrian purple ( grc, πορφύρα ''porphúra''; la, purpura), also known as Phoenician red, Phoenician purple, royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, is a reddish-purple natural dye. The name Tyrian refers to Tyre, Lebanon. It is ...

), and ουροσ (''-ouros'') -"tailed".. The genus contains the following species: *

Przevalski's redstart Przevalski's redstart (''Phoenicurus alaschanicus''), also known as the Ala Shan redstart, is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae.IOC World Bird LisFamily Muscicapidae/ref> It is endemic to China. Its natural habitat is temperate forest ...

(''Phoenicurus alaschanicus'') * Eversmann's redstart (''Phoenicurus erythronotus'') * Blue-capped redstart (''Phoenicurus coeruleocephala'') *

Black redstart The black redstart (''Phoenicurus ochruros'') is a small passerine bird in the genus ''Phoenicurus''. Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family (Turdidae), but is now known to be an Old World flycatcher (Muscic ...

(''Phoenicurus ochruros'') *

Common redstart The common redstart (''Phoenicurus phoenicurus''), or often simply redstart, is a small passerine bird in the genus ''Phoenicurus''. Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, (Turdidae), but is now known to be ...

(''Phoenicurus phoenicurus'') * Hodgson's redstart (''Phoenicurus hodgsoni'') * White-throated redstart (''Phoenicurus schisticeps'') *

Daurian redstart The Daurian redstart (''Phoenicurus auroreus'') is a small passerine bird from temperate Asia. In Japan, it is known as ''jōbitaki'' (ジョウビタキ). The species was first described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1776. Description and systemati ...

(''Phoenicurus auroreus'') *

Moussier's redstart Moussier's redstart (''Phoenicurus moussieri'') is a small passerine bird in the genus ''Phoenicurus'' (redstarts), formerly classed as a member of the thrush family (Turdidae), but is now classified as an Old World flycatcher (Muscicapidae). It ...

(''Phoenicurus moussieri'') *

Güldenstädt's redstart Güldenstädt's redstart (''Phoenicurus erythrogastrus'') also sometimes called the white-winged redstart, is a species of bird in the genus ''Phoenicurus'', family Muscicapidae. It is found in the high mountains of the southwestern and central P ...

(''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 The white-capped redstart or white-capped water redstart (''Phoenicurus leucocephalus'') is a passerine bird of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and to certain regions of Central A ...

(''Phoenicurus leucocephalus'') (previously in the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

genus ''Chaimarrornis'')

Fossil record

* ''Phoenicurus erikai'' (Pliocene of Csarnota, Hungary). * ''Phoenicurus baranensis'' (Pliocene of Beremend, Hungary).

Fossil record

References

Further reading