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Stiphrornis

Stiphrornis is a genus of passerine birds containing the forest robins. These are members of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae and are found in the tropical rain-forests of West Africa. The genus formerly contained only a single species, the forest robin, but this species complex has been split so that the genus now contains three species.

Taxonomy

The genus Stiphrornis was introduced in 1855 by the German ornithologist Gustav Hartlaub with Stiphrornis erythrothorax Hartlaub (the orange-breasted forest robin) as the type species.[1][2] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek στιφρος/stiphros meaning "sturdy" or "stout" with ορνις/ornis meaning "bird".[3]

All taxa within the genus Stiphrornis were formerly considered to comprise a single species, the forest robin (S. erythrothorax), but in 1999, it was argued, based on the phylogenetic species concept, that all then-recognized taxa should be considered separate monotypic species.[4] The split was not followed in 2005 by the Handbook of the Birds of the World, where it was described as "perhaps premature".[5] An additional taxon, Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus (the olive-backed forest robin) was described as a new species in 2008,[6] but this taxon was treated as a subspecies of the forest robin in 2014 in the fourth edition of the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World.[7]

In 2017 Garry Voelker and collaborators described three additional taxa in the forest robin species complex and in the same article reported the results of a molecular phylogenetic study of the complex. The authors chose to treat all eight taxa as separate species,[8] but other ornithologists have not followed this lead and have instead divided the taxa into three species.[9][10][11]

Species

The genus contains three species:[9]

The cladogram below showing the relationships between the taxa is based on a molecular phylogenetic study by Garry Voelker and collaborators that was published in 2017.[8] The species are those recognised by Frank Gill, Pamela C. Rasmussen and David Donsker in the list of world birds maintained on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC).[9]

Stiphrornis
Olive-backed forest robin

pyrrholaemus

(Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus)
Yellow-breasted forest robin

xanthogaster

rudderi

sanghensis

(Stiphrornis xanthogaster)
Orange-breasted forest robin

erythrothorax

inexpectatus

dahomeyensis

gabonensis

(Stiphrornis erythrothorax)

References

  1. ^ Hartlaub, Gustav (1855). "Beschreibung einiger neuen, von Herrn H. S. Pel, holländischem Residenten an der Goldküste, daselbst gesammelten Vögelarten". Journal für Ornithologie (in German). 3 (17): 353-361 [355].
  2. ^ Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, eds. (1964). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 33.
  3. ^ Jobling, James A. "Stiphrornis". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
  4. ^ Beresford, P.; Cracraft, J. (1999). "Speciation in African forest robins (Stiphrornis): species limits, phylogenetic relationships, and molecular biogeography". American Museum Novitates. 3270: 1–22.
  5. ^ Collar, N.J. (2005). "Forest Robin (Stiphrornis erythrothorax)". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Christie, D.A. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 10: Cuckoo-shrikes to Thrushes. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. pp. 730–731. ISBN 978-84-87334-72-6.
  6. ^ Schmidt, B.K.; Foster, J.T.; Angehr, G.R.; Durrant, K.L.; Fleischer, R.C. (2008). "A new species of African Forest Robin from Gabon (Passeriformes: Muscicapidae: Stiphrornis". Zootaxa. 1850 (1): 27–42. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1850.1.2.
  7. ^ Dickinson, E.C.; Christidis, L., eds. (2014). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2: Passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. p. 598. ISBN 978-0-9568611-2-2.
  8. ^ a b Voelker, G.; Tobler, M.; Prestridge, H.L.; Duijm, E.; Groenenberg, D.; Hutchinson, M.R.; Martin, A.D.; Nieman, A.; Roselaar, C.S.; Huntley, J.W. (2017). "Three new species of Stiphrornis (Aves: Muscicapidae) from the Afro-tropics, with a molecular phylogenetic assessment of the genus". Systematics and Biodiversity. 15 (2): 87–104. doi:10.1080/14772000.2016.1226978.
  9. ^ a b c Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Chats, Old World flycatchers". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 April 2025.
  10. ^ Clements, J.F.; Rasmussen, P.C.; Schulenberg, T.S.; Iliff, M.J.; Fredericks, T.A.; Gerbracht, J.A.; Lepage, D.; Spencer, A.; Billerman, S.M.; Sullivan, B.L.; Smith, M.; Wood, C.L. (2024). "The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2024". Retrieved 8 April 2025.
  11. ^ "The HBW/BirdLife Taxonomic Checklist: Version 9.0". Birdlife International. October 2024. Retrieved 8 April 2025.