''Cyornis'' 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 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 ...

most of which are native to Southeast Asia.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Cyornis'' was introduced by the English zoologist

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the Asiatic Society, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. He set about updating the museum ...

in 1843. He listed three species in the genus but did not specify which he considered to be 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 ...

. The type was subsequently designated by George Gray in 1855 as ''Phoenicura rubeculoides'' Vigors, 1831, the

blue-throated blue flycatcher The blue-throated blue flycatcher (''Cyornis rubeculoides'') is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. It resembles ''Cyornis tickelliae'' but easily separated by the blue throat. The habitat of this species is a thicker ...

. The genus name combines the

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 ...

''kuanos'' meaning "dark-blue" with ''ornis'' meaning "bird".

Species

The genus contains the following 32 species: Seven of the above species, all with "jungle flycatcher" in their English names, were previously placed in the genus ''Rhinomyias'' but were moved to ''Cyornis'' based on the results of a 2010

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. There are also "jungle flycatchers" in the genus ''

Vauriella ''Vauriella'' is a genus of birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae that occur in Borneo and the Philippines. The species were previously placed in the genus ''Rhinomyias'' but were moved to ''Vauriella'' when a detailed molecular ...

''.

Taxonomy

Species

References

Further reading