Rock thrush


The rock thrushes, Monticola, are a genus of chats, medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous songbirds. All are Old World birds, and most are associated with mountainous regions.

Taxonomy

The genus Monticola was erected by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie in 1822. Boie listed two species, saxatilis and cyanus but did not designate the type species. In 1826 Boie introduced a different genus name, Petrocossyphus, containing a single species, Turdus saxatilis Linnaeus. This new genus name was not accepted by other ornithologists as according to Hugh Edwin Strickland: "The former name ought therefore to stand, as authors ought no more to alter their own generic names when once published than those of others". The type species of the genus Monticola is Turdus saxatilis Linnaeus, the common rock thrush. Monticola is the Latin word for mountain-dweller or mountaineer.
The genus was formerly included in the thrush family Turdidae, but molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2004 and 2010 showed that the species are more closely related to members of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
The genus contains the following species:
ImageCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
Blue-capped rock thrushMonticola cinclorhynchaHimalayas; winters to western and eastern Ghats
White-throated rock thrushMonticola gularisManchuria
Chestnut-bellied rock thrushMonticola rufiventrisHimalayas, Patkai and southern China
Short-toed rock thrushMonticola brevipesarid areas of southwestern Angola and southern Africa
Sentinel rock thrushMonticola exploratorsouthern Africa
Amber Mountain rock thrushMonticola erythronotusAmber Mountain, Madagascar
Forest rock thrushMonticola sharpeiMadagascar
Benson's rock thrushMonticola sharpei bensonisouthern-central Madagascar
Littoral rock thrushMonticola imerinasouthern coastal Madagascar
Little rock thrushMonticola rufocinereuseastern Afromontane
Common rock thrushMonticola saxatilistemperate rocky regions of Palearctic; winters to Africa
Blue rock thrushMonticola solitariustemperate and elevated areas of Palearctic;
winters to Africa, Arabia and Indomalaya
Cape rock thrushMonticola rupestrissouthern Africa
Miombo rock thrushMonticola angolensisMiombo woodlands
White-winged cliff chatMonticola semirufusEthiopian Highlands

Fossil record

''Monticola pongraczi''