The magpie-robins or shamas (from ''shama'',
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
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
''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...
family Turdidae, but are now treated as part of the
Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. They are garden- and forest-dwelling species found in Africa and Asia.
The genus ''Copsychus'' was introduced by the German naturalist
Johann Georg Wagler in 1827. The
type species was subsequently designated as the
Oriental magpie-robin (''Copsychus saularis'') by the English zoologist
George Robert Gray in 1840.
The name ''Copsychus'' is from the
Ancient Greek ''kopsukhos'' or ''kopsikhos'', meaning "blackbird".
The genus contains 13 species:
The Seychelles magpie-robin is one of the most endangered birds in the world, with a population of less than 250, although this is a notable increase from just 16 in 1970.
References
*
{{Muscicapidae-stub
