The scrub robins or bush chats are medium-sized insectivorous birds in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

''Cercotrichas''. They were formerly in the

thrush ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...

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 are more often now treated as part of the

Old World flycatcher 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 ...

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 ...

). They are not closely related to the Australian scrub-robins, genus ''

Drymodes ''Drymodes'' is a genus of bird in the family Petroicidae. It was traditionally held to have two species, but molecular and behavioural differences led to the split of the New Guinea populations from the northern scrub robin. The paper by Les C ...

'' in the family

Petroicidae The bird family Petroicidae includes 51 species in 19 genera. All are endemic to Australasia: New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and numerous Pacific Islands as far east as Samoa. For want of an accurate common name, the family is often called th ...

. The genus name ''Cercotrichas'' is from

Ancient 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 Archaic p ...

''kerkos'', "tail" and ''trikhas'', "thrush".. Scrub robins are mainly

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n species of open woodland or scrub, which nest in bushes or on the ground, but the

rufous-tailed scrub robin The rufous-tailed scrub robin (''Cercotrichas galactotes'') is a medium-sized member of the family Muscicapidae. Other common names include the rufous scrub robin, rufous bush chat, rufous bush robin and the rufous warbler. It breeds around the M ...

also breeds in southern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

and east to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. The genus contains the following species: *

Karoo scrub robin The Karoo scrub robin (''Cercotrichas coryphaeus'') or Karoo robin is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa. Its natural habitats are dry shrubland and Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetatio ...

, ''Cercotrichas coryphaeus'' *

Forest scrub robin The forest scrub robin (''Cercotrichas leucosticta'') is a species of bird 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 Asi ...

, ''Cercotrichas leucosticta'' *

Bearded scrub robin The bearded scrub robin (''Cercotrichas quadrivirgata''), also known as the eastern bearded scrub robin, is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in eastern and southern Africa. Taxonomy This species was described as ''Tham ...

, ''Cercotrichas quadrivirgata'' *

Miombo scrub robin The Miombo scrub robin (''Cercotrichas barbata''), is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or ...

, ''Cercotrichas barbata'' *

Black scrub robin The black scrub robin (''Cercotrichas podobe'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Jordan, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nig ...

, ''Cercotrichas podobe'' *

Rufous-tailed scrub robin The rufous-tailed scrub robin (''Cercotrichas galactotes'') is a medium-sized member of the family Muscicapidae. Other common names include the rufous scrub robin, rufous bush chat, rufous bush robin and the rufous warbler. It breeds around the M ...

, ''Cercotrichas galactotes'' *

Kalahari scrub robin The Kalahari scrub robin (''Cercotricha paena'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is sometimes known as the sandy scrub robin. Range It is found in southern Angola, Botswana, Namibia, northern South Africa, and Zimbabwe ...

, ''Cercotrichas paena'' *

Brown-backed scrub robin The brown-backed scrub robin (''Cercotrichas hartlaubi'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, and ...

, ''Cercotrichas hartlaubi'' * White-browed scrub robin, ''Cercotrichas leucophrys'' *

Brown scrub robin The brown scrub robin (''Cercotrichas signata'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Eswatini, Mozambique and, South Africa. Its natural habitat is subtropical dry or moist forest A forest is an area of land do ...

, ''Cercotrichas signata''

References

Further reading