Brachypteryx is a genus of passerine birds in the family Muscicapidae containing ten species known as shortwings, that occurs in southeast Asia.
Shortwings are small birds with long legs, finely pointed bills, short tails and short rounded wings. They are shy elusive ground-dwellers that generally prefer the cover of dense undergrowth.
Taxonomy The genus Brachypteryx was introduced by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield in 1821. Horsfield listed several species in the new genus but did not specify a type species. The paper was first read in April 1820. The title page is dated 1822. In 1855 the English zoologist George Gray designated the type as Brachypteryx montana Horsfield, the Javan shortwing. The genus name comes from the classical Greek brakhus mean "short" and pterux meaning "wing". The genus was previously placed in the thrush family Turdidae but in 2010 two separate molecular phylogenetic studies found that species in the genus were more closely related to members of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
The genus contains the following ten species:
Image Common name Scientific name Distribution Himalayan shortwing Brachypteryx cruralis eastern Himalayas, southern China and Indochina Chinese shortwing Brachypteryx sinensis South China Taiwan shortwing Brachypteryx goodfellowi Taiwan Rusty-bellied shortwing Brachypteryx hyperythra Sikkim, Northeast-India and Yunnan Lesser shortwing Brachypteryx leucophris Eastern Himalaya, southern China and Southeast Asia Philippine shortwing Brachypteryx poliogyna Philippines - Bornean shortwing Brachypteryx erythrogyna montane Borneo - Sumatran shortwing Brachypteryx saturata montane Sumatra Javan shortwing Brachypteryx montana montane Java - Flores shortwing Brachypteryx floris Flores
Whilst the Javan and rusty-bellied shortwings show strong sexual plumage dimorphism, the lesser shortwing is sexually monomorphic.
Three other species were formerly placed in Brachypteryx:
Great shortwing, Heinrichia calligyna Nilgiri blue robin or Nilgiri shortwing Myiomela major Gould's shortwing, Heteroxenicus stellata
References