The longclaws are a genus, Macronyx, of small African passerine birds in the family Motacillidae.
Longclaws are slender, often colorful, ground-feeding insectivores of open country. They are ground nesters, laying up to four speckled eggs. They are named for their unusually long hind claws, which are thought to help in walking on grass. There are only between 10,000 and 19,000 Sharpe's longclaw left in Kenya.
The genus Macronyx was introduced by the English naturalist William John Swainson in 1827 with the Cape longclaw as the type species.[1] [2] The name combines the Classical Greek words "long" or "great" and "claw".[3]
The genus contains eight species:[4]
| Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Macronyx sharpei | west and central Kenya. | ||
| Macronyx flavicollis | Ethiopia | ||
| Macronyx fuelleborni | Fülleborn's longclaw | south-central Africa. | |
| Macronyx capensis | Southern Africa in Zimbabwe and southern and eastern South Africa. | ||
| Macronyx croceus | Yellow-throated longclaw | Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. | |
| Macronyx aurantiigula | Tanzania, Kenya and Somalia. | ||
| Macronyx ameliae | Rosy-throated longclaw | Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. | |
| Macronyx grimwoodi | Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia. | ||