Rock thrush

{{Short description|Genus of birds}} {{Automatic Taxobox | name = Rock thrushes | image = Monticola brevipes, Namibia 1.jpg | image_caption = Male short-toed rock thrush (''Monticola brevipes'') | taxon = Monticola | authority = F. Boie, 1822 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = See text | synonyms = {{Species list |Pseudocossyphus|F Boie, 1826 }} | type_species = ''Turdus saxatilis'' | type_species_authority=Linnaeus, 1766 }}

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.<ref>{{ cite journal | last=Boie | first=F. | year=1822 | title=Ueber Classification, insonderheit der europäischen Vogel | journal=Isis von Oken | volume=10–11 | at=Col. 552 | language=de | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27515507 }}</ref> In 1826 Boie introduced a different genus name, ''Petrocossyphus'', containing a single species, ''Turdus saxatilis'' Linnaeus.<ref>{{ cite journal | last=Boie | first=Friedrich | author-link=Friedrich Boie | year=1826 | title=Generalübersicht der ornithologischen Ordnungen, Familien und Gattungen | journal=Isis von Oken | language=German | volume=19 | at=Cols 969–981 [972] | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27511178 }}</ref> 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".<ref>{{ cite journal | last=Strickland | first=Hugh Edwin | author-link=Hugh Edwin Strickland | year=1841 | title=Commentary on Mr. G.R. Gray's ''Genera of Birds''. 1840 (continued) | journal=Annals and Magazine of Natural History; Zoology, Botany, and Geology | volume=7 | pages=26-41 [26] | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2314721 }}</ref> The type species of the genus ''Monticola'' is ''Turdus saxatilis'' Linnaeus, the common rock thrush.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Gray | first=George Robert | author-link=George Robert Gray | year=1847 | title=The Genera of Birds : comprising their generic characters, a notice of the habits of each genus, and an extensive list of species referred to their several genera | volume=1 | location=London | publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans | page=220 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40012358 }} The title page has 1849. For the publication date see {{ cite journal | last=Bruce | first=Murray D. | date=2023 | title=The Genera of Birds (1844–1849) by George Robert Gray: A review of its part publication, dates, new nominal taxa, suppressed content and other details | journal=Sherbornia | volume=8 | issue=1 | pages=1–93 [18] | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368392529 | ref=none }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | last1=Mayr | first1=Ernst | last2=Paynter | first2=Raymond A. Jr. | year=1964 | title=Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 10 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=135 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14486324 }}</ref> ''Monticola'' is the Latin word for mountain-dweller or mountaineer.<ref>{{ cite web | last=Jobling | first=James A. | title=Monticola | work=The Key to Scientific Names | url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/key-to-scientific-names/search?q=Monticola | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | access-date=2 June 2025 }}</ref>

The genus was formerly included in the thrush family Turdidae,<ref name=hbw>{{ cite book | last=Collar | first=N.J. | year=2005 | chapter=Family Turdidae (Thrushes) | editor1-last=del Hoyo | editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Elliott | editor2-first=A. | editor3-last=Christie | editor3-first=D.A. | title=Handbook of the Birds of the World | volume=10: Cuckoo-shrikes to Thrushes | location=Barcelona, Spain | publisher=Lynx Edicions | isbn=978-84-87334-72-6 | pages=514-807 [515] | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofbirdso0010unse/page/515/mode/1up | chapter-url-access=registration }}</ref> 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.<ref name=voelker2004>{{ cite journal | last1=Voelker | first1=G. | last2=Spellman | first2=G.M. | year=2004 | title=Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA evidence of polyphyly in the avian superfamily Muscicapoidea | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume=30 | issue=2 | pages=386–394 | doi=10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00191-X | pmid=14715230 }}</ref><ref name=sangster2010>{{ cite journal | last1=Sangster | first1=G. | last2=Alström | first2=P. | last3=Forsmark | first3=E. | last4=Olsson | first4=U. | year=2010 | title=Multi-locus phylogenetic analysis of Old World chats and flycatchers reveals extensive paraphyly at family, subfamily and genus level (Aves: Muscicapidae) | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume=57 | issue=1 | pages=380–392 | doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2010.07.008 | pmid=20656044}}</ref>

The genus contains the following species:<ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela C. Rasmussen | date=February 2025 | title=Chats, Old World flycatchers | work=IOC World Bird List Version 15.1 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/chats/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=2 June 2025}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" |- ! Image !! Common name !! Scientific name !! Distribution |- | 125px || Blue-capped rock thrush ||''Monticola cinclorhyncha''|| Himalayas; winters to western and eastern Ghats |- | 125px || White-throated rock thrush ||''Monticola gularis''|| Manchuria |- | 125px || Chestnut-bellied rock thrush ||''Monticola rufiventris''|| Himalayas, Purvanchal Range and southern China |- | 125px || Short-toed rock thrush ||''Monticola brevipes''|| arid areas of southwestern Angola and southern Africa |- | 125px || Sentinel rock thrush ||''Monticola explorator''|| southern Africa |- | 125px || Amber Mountain rock thrush ||''Monticola erythronotus''|| Amber Mountain, Madagascar |- | 125px || Forest rock thrush ||''Monticola sharpei''|| Madagascar |- | 125px || Benson's rock thrush ||''Monticola sharpei bensoni''|| southern-central Madagascar |- | 125px || Littoral rock thrush ||''Monticola imerina''|| southern coastal Madagascar |- | 125px || Little rock thrush ||''Monticola rufocinereus''|| eastern Afromontane |- | 125px || Common rock thrush ||''Monticola saxatilis''|| temperate rocky regions of Palearctic; winters to Africa |- | 125px || Blue rock thrush ||''Monticola solitarius''|| temperate and elevated areas of Palearctic;<br/>winters to Africa, Arabia and Indomalaya |- | 125px || Cape rock thrush ||''Monticola rupestris''|| southern Africa |- | 125px || Miombo rock thrush ||''Monticola angolensis''|| Miombo woodlands |- | 125px || White-winged cliff chat ||''Monticola semirufus''|| Ethiopian Highlands |- |}

==Fossil record== ''Monticola pongraczi'' (Pliocene of Beremend, Hungary) <ref>Kessler, E. 2013. Neogene songbirds (Aves, Passeriformes) from Hungary. – Hantkeniana, Budapest, 2013, 8: 37-149.</ref>

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading== *{{cite journal | last1=Outlaw | first1=R.K. | last2=Voelker | first2=G. | last3=Outlaw | first3=D.C. | year=2007 | title=Molecular systematics and historical biogeography of the Rock-thrushes (Muscicapidae: ''Monticola'') | journal=The Auk | volume=124 | issue=2 | pages=561–577 | doi=10.1642/0004-8038(2007)124[561:MSAHBO]2.0.CO;2 | doi-access=free }}{{open access}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Monticola}} *[http://ibc.lynxeds.com/family/thrushes-turdidae Rock thrush videos] on the Internet Bird Collection

Category:Chats (birds) *