Gould's shortwing
{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{speciesbox
| name = Gould's shortwing
| image = Gould's Shortwing iNaturalist.jpg
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Heteroxenicus
| parent_authority = Sharpe, 1902
| species = stellatus
| authority = (Gould, 1868)
| synonyms = Brachypteryx stellatus
}}
Gould's shortwing (Heteroxenicus stellatus) is a small species of passerine bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in the Himalayas (mainly Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Bhutan), Yunnan and northern parts of Myanmar and Vietnam. It breeds in the eastern Himalayas in rocky areas above the tree-line and winters at lower altitude in wooded valleys.
Gould's shortwing is the only species in the genus Heteroxenicus. It was formerly placed in the genus Brachypteryx.
The common name commemorates the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould (1804-1881).{{cite book | last1=Beolens | first1=Bo | last2=Watkins | first2=Michael | year=2003 | title=Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds |publisher=Christopher Helm| location=London | pages=145–146 | isbn=978-0-7136-6647-2 }}
Taxonomy
The first formal description of Gould's shortwing was by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould in 1868 from a specimen collected in Nepal. He chose the binomial name Brachypteryx stellatus.{{ cite journal | last=Gould | first=John | author-link=John Gould | year=1868 | title=On four new species of birds | journal=Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London | volume=1868 | page=218 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28664725 }}
Gould's shortwing is the only species in the genus Heteroxenicus. It was formerly placed in the genus Brachypteryx and was assigned to the thrush family Turdidae.{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | title=Chats, Old World flycatchers | work=World Bird List Version 6.2 | url=http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/chats/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union| access-date=20 May 2016 }} The genus Heteroxenicus had been introduced by Richard Bowdler Sharpe in 1902.{{ cite journal | last=Sharpe | first=Richard Bowdler | author-link=Richard Bowdler Sharpe | year=1902 | title=Heteroxenicus | journal=Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club | volume=12 | page=55 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37116625 }} The genus name Heteroxenicus combines the classical Greek words heteros for "different" and xenikos for "stranger". The specific epithet stellata is from the Latin word stellatus meaning "starry" or "set with stars".{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url=https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn= 978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n191 191], 365 }}
Description
Gould's shortwing is {{cvt|12|-|13|cm}} in length with a weight of {{cvt|19|-|23|g}}. It is chestnut coloured above and dark grey below with small white spots or stars on its belly. It has long brown legs and a black bill. The sexes are similar. Nothing is known about the nest or the eggs.{{cite book| last=Collar | first=N. | chapter=Gould’s Shortwing (Heteroxenicus stellatus) | editor1-last=del Hoyo | editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Elliott | editor2-first=A. | editor3-last=Sargatal | editor3-first=J. | editor4-last=Christie | editor4-first=D.A. | editor5-last=de Juana | editor5-first=E. | title=Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive | publisher=Lynx Edicions | chapter-url=http://www.hbw.com/node/58386 | access-date=1 October 2016 }}{{ cite book | last=Clement | first=Peter | year=2016 | title=Robins and Chats | series=Helm Identification Guides | place=London | publisher=Bloomsbury | isbn=978-140815596-7 | pages=182–183 }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Heteroxenicus-stellatus Xeno-canto: audio recordings of Gould's shortwing]
{{Passerida|M.|state=collapsed}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q27075661}}
Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
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