The Taiwan bush robin (''Tarsiger formosanus'') is a small

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 ...

bird 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 ...

that is endemic to Taiwan. It was formerly considered as a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the

white-browed bush robin The white-browed bush robin (''Tarsiger indicus'') is a species of passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae that is found from the Himalayas to south-central China and north Vietnam. Its natural habitat is Rhododendron and c ...

(''Tarsiger indicus'').

Taxonomy

The Taiwan bush robin was formally described in 1910 by the German ornithologist

Ernst Hartert Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (29 October 1859 – 11 November 1933) was a widely published German ornithologist. Life and career Hartert was born in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on 29 October 1859. In July 1891, he married the illustrat ...

based on specimens collected on behalf of Alan Owston on the mountains of central Taiwan. Hartert considered the specimens to represent a

of the

(''Tarsiger indicus'') and coined the

trinomial name In biology, trinomial nomenclature is the system of names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany. In zoology In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or t ...

''Tarsiger indicus formosanus''. Formosa is an alternative name for

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. The Taiwan bush robin is now considered as a separate species based on a phylogenetic analysis published in 2022 as well as differences in plumage and vocalizations. The species is

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 ...

: no other

are recognised.

References

Taiwan bush robin Birds of Taiwan Taiwan bush robin Taxa named by Ernst Hartert {{Muscicapidae-stub