''Phoenicurus'' 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 ...

of passerine birds in the Old World flycatcher 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 ...

, native to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. They are named redstarts from their orange-red tails ('start' is an old name for a tail). They are small

insectivore file:Common brown robberfly with prey.jpg, A Asilidae, robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivore, carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the Entomophagy ...

s, the males mostly brightly coloured in various combinations of red, blue, white, and black, the females light brown with a red tail. A

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 ...

study published in 2010 led to a reorganization of the Old World flycatchers family in which the two species in ''Rhyacornis'' and the single species in ''Chaimarrornis'' were merged into ''Phoenicurus''. Phoenicurus auroreus male and female s2

The genus ''Phoenicurus'' was introduced by the English naturalist Thomas Forster in 1817. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

(by

tautonymy A tautonym is a scientific name of a species in which both parts of the name have the same spelling, such as ''Rattus rattus''. The first part of the name is the name of the genus and the second part is referred to as the ''specific epithet'' in ...

) is the common redstart (''Phoenicurus phoenicurus''). The name ''Phoenicurus'' is from

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

φοινιξ (''phoinix''), "(

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n) crimson/purple" (see also

Tyrian purple Tyrian purple ( ''porphúra''; ), also known as royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, is a reddish-purple natural dye. The name Tyrian refers to Tyre, Lebanon, once Phoenicia. It is secreted by several species of predatory sea snails ...

), and ουροσ (''-ouros'') -"tailed".. The genus contains the following species: * Przevalski's redstart (''Phoenicurus alaschanicus'') * Eversmann's redstart (''Phoenicurus erythronotus'') * Blue-capped redstart (''Phoenicurus coeruleocephala'') * Black redstart (''Phoenicurus ochruros'') * Common redstart (''Phoenicurus phoenicurus'') * Hodgson's redstart (''Phoenicurus hodgsoni'') * White-throated redstart (''Phoenicurus schisticeps'') * Daurian redstart (''Phoenicurus auroreus'') * Moussier's redstart (''Phoenicurus moussieri'') *

Güldenstädt's redstart Güldenstädt's redstart (''Phoenicurus erythrogastrus'') also sometimes called the white-winged redstart, is a species of bird in the genus ''Phoenicurus'', family Muscicapidae. It is found in the high mountains of the southwestern and central P ...

(''Phoenicurus erythrogastrus'') *

Blue-fronted redstart The blue-fronted redstart (''Phoenicurus frontalis'') is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae, the Old World flycatchers. It breeds in central China and the Himalayas (where it winters in the southern foothills, as well as in southern Yu ...

(''Phoenicurus frontalis'') * Plumbeous water redstart (''Phoenicurus fuliginosus'') (previously in the genus ''Rhyacornis'') * Luzon water redstart (''Phoenicurus bicolor'') (previously in the genus ''Rhyacornis'') * White-capped redstart (''Phoenicurus leucocephalus'') (previously in the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus ''Chaimarrornis'')

Fossil record

* ''Phoenicurus erikai'' (Pliocene of Csarnota, Hungary). * ''Phoenicurus baranensis'' (Pliocene of Beremend, Hungary).

Fossil record

References

Further reading