Rock thrush
Genus of birds
The rock thrushes, Monticola, are a genus of chats, medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous songbirds. All are Old World birds, and most are associated with mountainous regions.
01Taxonomy
The genus Monticola was erected by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie in 1822. Boie listed two species, saxatilis and cyanus but did not designate the type species. In 1826 Boie introduced a different genus name, Petrocossyphus, containing a single species, Turdus saxatilis Linnaeus. This new genus name was not accepted by other ornithologists as according to Hugh Edwin Strickland: "The former name ought therefore to stand, as authors ought no more to alter their own generic names when once published than those of others". The type species of the genus Monticola is Turdus saxatilis Linnaeus, the common rock thrush. Monticola is the Latin word for mountain-dweller or mountaineer.
The genus was formerly included in the thrush family Turdidae, but molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2004 and 2010 showed that the species are more closely related to members of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
The genus contains the following species:
| Image | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue-capped rock thrush | Monticola cinclorhyncha | Himalayas; winters to western and eastern Ghats | |
| White-throated rock thrush | Monticola gularis | Manchuria | |
| Chestnut-bellied rock thrush | Monticola rufiventris | Himalayas, Purvanchal Range and southern China | |
| Short-toed rock thrush | Monticola brevipes | arid areas of southwestern Angola and southern Africa | |
| Sentinel rock thrush | Monticola explorator | southern Africa | |
| Amber Mountain rock thrush | Monticola erythronotus | Amber Mountain, Madagascar | |
| Forest rock thrush | Monticola sharpei | Madagascar | |
| Benson's rock thrush | Monticola sharpei bensoni | southern-central Madagascar | |
| Littoral rock thrush | Monticola imerina | southern coastal Madagascar | |
| Little rock thrush | Monticola rufocinereus | eastern Afromontane | |
| Common rock thrush | Monticola saxatilis | temperate rocky regions of Palearctic; winters to Africa | |
| Blue rock thrush | Monticola solitarius | temperate and elevated areas of Palearctic; winters to Africa, Arabia and Indomalaya | |
| Cape rock thrush | Monticola rupestris | southern Africa | |
| Miombo rock thrush | Monticola angolensis | Miombo woodlands | |
| White-winged cliff chat | Monticola semirufus | Ethiopian Highlands |
02Fossil record
Monticola pongraczi (Pliocene of Beremend, Hungary)
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Rock thrush”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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