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 The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands ( Ōsumi, Tokara and Amami) and Okinawa Prefecture ( Daitō, Miyako, Y ...

, 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 Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''komadori'' is, somewhat confusingly, the common name of its relative the

Japanese robin The Japanese robin (''Larvivora akahige'') is a small passerine bird in the family Muscicapidae. This species was formerly named ''Erithacus akahige'', or ''Komadori''. Its range extends from the south of the Kuril and Sakhalin Islands througho ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. The Ryukyu robin, together with the

and the

European robin The European robin (''Erithacus rubecula''), known simply as the robin or robin redbreast in the British Isles, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that belongs to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is found across Europe, ea ...

, 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 ''Erithacus'' (; (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'' and ''E ...

'' . 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 ''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 subfami ...

'', 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 The Ryukyu robin (''Larvivora komadori'') is a bird endemic to the Ryūkyū Islands, of Japan. The Okinawa robin (''Larvivora namiyei'') previously was considered a subspecies. The specific name ''komadori'' is, somewhat confusingly, the comm ...

Endemic birds of Japan Endemic fauna of the Ryukyu Islands Birds of the Ryukyu Islands

Taxa named by Coenraad Jacob Temminck {{Muscicapidae-stub