The Ryukyu robin (''Larvivora komadori'') is a bird

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the Ryūkyū Islands, of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The Okinawa robin (''Larvivora namiyei'') previously was considered a subspecies. The specific name ''komadori'' is, somewhat confusingly, the common name of its relative the Japanese robin in Japanese. The Ryukyu robin, together with the Japanese robin and the European robin, was previously placed in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Erithacus'' . A 2006

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 found that the two east Asian species were more similar to the Siberian blue robin, at the time in '' Luscinia'', than to the European robin. In 2010, a large study confirmed this result and also found that ''Luscinia'' was non-monophyletic. The genus ''

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 species in this genus were all previously classified in other genera. A large molecular phylo ...

'' was therefore resurrected to accommodate a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

containing the Japanese robin, the Ryukyu robin, the Siberian blue robin and several other species that had previously been placed in ''Luscinia''.

References

Ryukyu robin Endemic birds of Japan Endemic fauna of the Ryukyu Islands Birds of the Ryukyu Islands Ryukyu robin Taxa named by Coenraad Jacob Temminck {{Muscicapidae-stub