Brachypteryx Explained

Brachypteryx is a genus of passerine birds in the family Muscicapidae containing ten species known as shortwings, that occurs in southeast Asia.

Shortwings are small birds with long legs, finely pointed bills, short tails and short rounded wings. They are shy elusive ground-dwellers that generally prefer the cover of dense undergrowth.^[1]

The genus Brachypteryx was introduced by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield in 1821.^[2] The word comes from the classical Greek brakhus mean "short" and pterux meaning "wing".^[3] The genus was previously placed in the thrush family Turdidae but in 2010 two separate molecular phylogenetic studies found that species in the genus were more closely related to members of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.^{[4] [5]}

The genus contains the following ten species:^[6]

• Rusty-bellied shortwing, Brachypteryx hyperythra
• Lesser shortwing, Brachypteryx leucophris
• Himalayan shortwing, Brachypteryx cruralis
• Chinese shortwing, Brachypteryx sinensis
• Taiwan shortwing, Brachypteryx goodfellowi
• Philippine shortwing, Brachypteryx poliogyna – split from B. montana
• Bornean shortwing, Brachypteryx erythrogyna – split from B. montana
• Sumatran shortwing, Brachypteryx saturata – split from . montana
• Javan shortwing, Brachypteryx montana – formerly the white-browed shortwing
• Flores shortwing, Brachypteryx floris – split from B. montana

Whilst the Javan and rusty-bellied shortwings show strong sexual plumage dimorphism, the lesser shortwing is sexually monomorphic.

Three other species were formerly placed in Brachypteryx:

• Great shortwing, Heinrichia calligyna
• Nilgiri blue robin or Nilgiri shortwing Myiomela major
• Gould's shortwing, Heteroxenicus stellata

Notes and References

1. Book: Clement, Peter . 2016 . Robins and Chats . Helm Identification Guides . London . Bloomsbury . 978-1-4081-5596-7 . 182 .
2. Horsfield . Thomas . Thomas Horsfield . 1821 . Systematic arrangement and description of birds from the island of Java . Transactions of the Linnean Society of London . 13 . 1 . 133–200 [157] . 10.1111/j.1095-8339.1821.tb00061.x . Latin, English . The paper was first read in April 1820. The title page is dated 1822.
3. Book: Jobling, James A. . 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm . London . 978-1-4081-2501-4 . 76 .
4. Sangster . G. . Alström . P. . Forsmark . E. . Olsson . U. . 2010 . Multi-locus phylogenetic analysis of Old World chats and flycatchers reveals extensive paraphyly at family, subfamily and genus level (Aves: Muscicapidae) . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . 57 . 1 . 380–392 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2010.07.008 . 20656044. 2010MolPE..57..380S .
5. Zuccon . D. . Ericson . P.G.P. . 2010 . A multi-gene phylogeny disentangles the chat-flycatcher complex (Aves: Muscicapidae) . Zoologica Scripta . 39 . 3 . 213–224 . 10.1111/j.1463-6409.2010.00423.x . 85963319 .
6. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . Rasmussen . Pamela . Pamela Rasmussen . January 2023 . Chats, Old World flycatchers . IOC World Bird List Version 13.1 . International Ornithologists' Union . 6 February 2023.