''Cossypha'' are small insectivorous

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 lightweig ...

s, with most species called robin-chats. They were formerly in 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 flyca ...

, but are now more often treated as part of the

Old World flycatcher 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 North ...

Muscicapidae. These are

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 ...

n woodland dwelling species, but some have become adapted to sites around human habitation. The name ''Cossypha'' for the genus was introduced by the Irish zoologist

Nicholas Aylward Vigors Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was an Irish zoologist and politician. He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of the quinarian system. Early life Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow on 1785 as fir ...

in 1825. The word comes from the

Classical 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 ...

''kossuphos'' for a blackbird or thrush. The genus contains the following species: * Mountain robin-chat, ''Cossypha isabellae'' * Archer's ground robin, ''Cossypha archeri'' *

Olive-flanked ground robin The olive-flanked ground robin (''Cossypha anomala''), also known as the olive-flanked robin-chat, is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Malawi, and Mozambique. Its natural habitat is tropical moist montane fores ...

, ''Cossypha anomala'' *

Cape robin-chat The Cape robin-chat (''Cossypha caffra'') is a small passerine bird of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It has a disjunct range from South Sudan to South Africa. The locally familiar and confiding species has colonized and benefited f ...

, ''Cossypha caffra'' * White-throated robin-chat, ''Cossypha humeralis'' * Grey-winged robin-chat, ''Cossypha polioptera'' *

Blue-shouldered robin-chat The blue-shouldered robin-chat (''Cossypha cyanocampter'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is widespread across the African tropical rainforest. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and sub ...

, ''Cossypha cyanocampter'' * Rüppell's robin-chat, ''Cossypha semirufa'' * White-browed robin-chat, ''Cossypha heuglini'' * Red-capped robin-chat, ''Cossypha natalensis'' * Chorister robin-chat, ''Cossypha dichroa'' * White-headed robin-chat, ''Cossypha heinrichi'' * Snowy-crowned robin-chat, ''Cossypha niveicapilla'' * White-crowned robin-chat, ''Cossypha albicapilla''

References

Taxa named by Nicholas Aylward Vigors {{Muscicapidae-stub