Wheatear

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Wikipedia

Wheatears
Male northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Subfamily: Saxicolinae
Genus: Oenanthe
Vieillot, 1816
Type species
Motacilla oenanthe[1]
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

See text

Synonyms

Cercomela

The wheatears are passerine birds of the genus Oenanthe. They were formerly considered to be members of the thrush family, Turdidae, but are now more commonly placed in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. This is an Old World group, but the northern wheatear has established a foothold in eastern Canada and Greenland and in western Canada and Alaska.

Taxonomy

The genus Oenanthe was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with Oenanthe leucura, the black wheatear, as the type species.[2][3] The genus formerly included fewer species but molecular phylogenetic studies of birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae found that the genus Cercomela was polyphyletic with five species, including the type species C. melanura, phylogenetically nested within the genus Oenanthe.[4][5] This implied that Cercomela and Oenanthe were synonyms. The genus Oenanthe (Vieillot, 1816) has taxonomic priority over Cercomela (Bonaparte, 1856) making Cercomela a junior synonym.[4][6] The genus name Oenanthe was used by Aristotle for an unidentified bird. The word is derived from the Greek oenoē meaning "vine" and anthos meaning "bloom". The bird was associated with the grape harvest season.[7]

The name "wheatear" is not derived from "wheat" or any sense of "ear", but is a folk etymology of "white" and "arse", referring to the prominent white rump found in most species.[8]

Description

Most species have characteristic black and white or red and white markings on their rumps or their long tails. Most species are strongly sexually dimorphic; only the male has the striking plumage patterns characteristic of the genus, though the females share the white or red rump patches.

Species list

The genus contains 33 species:[9]

ImageCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
Northern wheatearOenanthe oenantheHolarctic ; winters to Sub-Saharan Africa
Atlas wheatearOenanthe seebohmiMaghreb ; winters in western Sahel
Capped wheatearOenanthe pileatasouthern Sub-Saharan Africa
-Buff-breasted wheatearOenanthe bottaeAsir Mountains
Rusty-breasted wheatearOenanthe frenataEthiopian Highlands
Isabelline wheatearOenanthe isabellinacentral-southern Eurasia ; winters to Sub-Saharan, Africa, Middle east and South Asia
-Heuglin's wheatearOenanthe heugliniinorthern Sub-Saharan Africa
Hooded wheatearOenanthe monachaMiddle-East
Desert wheatearOenanthe desertiMaghreb and central Asia ; winters to North Africa, Middle East and South Asia
Western black-eared wheatearOenanthe hispanicawestern Mediterranean ; winters to western Sahel
Pied wheatearOenanthe pleschankacentral Asia ; winters to East Africa
Eastern black-eared wheatearOenanthe melanoleucaeastern Mediterranean ; winters to eastern Sahel
Cyprus wheatearOenanthe cypriacaCyprus
White-fronted black chatOenanthe albifronsSudan (region)
-Somali wheatearOenanthe phillipsiHorn of Africa
Red-rumped wheatearOenanthe moestaMorocco to Jordan; partly winters to eastern Saudi Arabia
BlackstartOenanthe melanuraSahel and Red Sea region
Familiar chatOenanthe familiarisSub-Saharan Africa
-Brown-tailed rock chatOenanthe scotocercaChad, western Sudan and Horn of Africa
-Sombre rock chatOenanthe dubiamontane desert of central Ethiopia
Brown rock chatOenanthe fuscanorthern South Asia
Variable wheatearOenanthe picatafrom eastern Iran and southern Kazakhstan to Indus river ;
winters to UAE and northwestern India
Finsch's wheatearOenanthe finschiiAnatolia to western Central Asia ; winters to Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
Maghreb wheatearOenanthe halophilaMaghreb
Mourning wheatearOenanthe lugensMiddle East
Basalt wheatearOenanthe warriaebasalt desert of eastern Jordan and southern Syria
Kurdish wheatearOenanthe xanthoprymnaKurdistan ; winters to Red Sea and southern Arabian Peninsula
Red-tailed wheatearOenanthe chrysopygiaIran and Pakistan ; winters to Arabian peninsula and northwestern South Asia
White-crowned wheatearOenanthe leucopygaNorth Africa and Middle East
Hume's wheatearOenanthe albonigraIran, eastern Oman to Indus valley
Black wheatearOenanthe leucuraIberian Peninsula to western Libya and Mauritania
Arabian wheatearOenanthe lugentoidesArabian Peninsula
Abyssinian wheatearOenanthe lugubrismontane East Africa

Behaviour

Wheatears are terrestrial insectivorous birds of open, often dry, country. They often nest in rock crevices or disused burrows. Northern species are long-distance migrants, wintering in Africa.

Fossil record

References

  1. ↑ "Muscicapidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  2. ↑ Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, eds. (1960). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 121.
  3. ↑ Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1883) [1816]. Saunders, Howard (ed.). Vieillot's Analyse d'une nouvelle ornithologie élémentaire (in French). London. p. 43.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. 1 2 Outlaw, R.K.; Voelker, G.; Bowie, R.C.K. (2010). "Shall we chat? Evolutionary relationships in the genus Cercomela (Muscicapidae) and its relation to Oenanthe reveals extensive polyphyly among chats distributed in Africa, India and the Palearctic". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 55 (1): 284–292. Bibcode:2010MolPE..55..284O. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2009.09.023. PMID 19772925.
  5. ↑ Aliabadian, M.; Kaboli, M.; Förschler, M.I.; Nijman, V.; Chamani, A.; Tillier, A.; Prodon, R.; Pasquet, E.; Ericson, P.G.P.; Zuccon, D. (2012). "Convergent evolution of morphological and ecological traits in the open-habitat chat complex (Aves, Muscicapidae: Saxicolinae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 65 (1): 35–45. Bibcode:2012MolPE..65...35A. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2012.05.011. PMID 22634240.
  6. ↑ Sangster, George; Collinson, J. Martin; Crochet, Pierre-André; Knox, Alan G.; Parkin, David T.; Votier, Stephen C. (2013). "Taxonomic recommendations for Western Palearctic birds: ninth report". Ibis. 155 (4): 898–907 [903]. doi:10.1111/ibi.12091.
  7. ↑ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 280. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  8. ↑ "Wheatear". Merriam Webster Online. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  9. ↑ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2023). "Chats, Old World flycatchers". IOC World Bird List Version 13.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  10. 1 2 Kessler, E. 2013. Neogene songbirds (Aves, Passeriformes) from Hungary. – Hantkeniana, Budapest, 2013, 8: 37–149.