''Brachypteryx'' is a

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 ...

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

birds in the family

Muscicapidae The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica'') and north ...

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. The genus ''Brachypteryx'' was introduced by the American naturalist

Thomas Horsfield Thomas Horsfield (May 12, 1773 – July 24, 1859) was an American physician and natural history, naturalist who worked extensively in Indonesia, describing numerous species of plants and animals from the region. He was later a curator of the Eas ...

in 1821. The word comes from the

classical Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archa ...

''brakhus'' mean "short" and ''pterux'' meaning "wing". The genus was previously placed in the thrush family

Turdidae The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World flyca ...

but in 2010 two separate

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 ...

studies found that species in the genus were more closely related to members of the Old World flycatcher family

. The genus contains the following ten species: 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 The great shortwing (''Heinrichia calligyna'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae, and the only member of its genus. Other common names include giant shortwing, Celebes shortwing and Sulawesi shortwing. It is endemic to Sulawesi in ...

, ''Heinrichia calligyna'' *

Nilgiri blue robin The Nilgiri blue robin (''Sholicola major''), also known as Nilgiri shortwing, white-bellied shortwing, Nilgiri sholakili or rufous-bellied shortwing is a species of passerine bird in the family Muscicapidae endemic to the Shola forests of the h ...

Nilgiri shortwing The Nilgiri blue robin (''Sholicola major''), also known as Nilgiri shortwing, white-bellied shortwing, Nilgiri sholakili or rufous-bellied shortwing is a species of passerine bird in the family Muscicapidae endemic to the Shola forests of the h ...

''Myiomela major'' * Gould's shortwing, ''Heteroxenicus stellata''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q848847 Muscicapidae Bird genera Birds of Southeast Asia Taxa named by Thomas Horsfield