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. The title page has 1849. For the publication date see 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:
Image Common name Scientific name Distribution Blue-capped rock thrush Monticola cinclorhyncha Himalayas; winters to western and eastern Ghats White-throated rock thrush Monticola gularis Manchuria Chestnut-bellied rock thrush Monticola rufiventris Himalayas, Purvanchal Range and southern China Short-toed rock thrush Monticola brevipes arid areas of southwestern Angola and southern Africa Sentinel rock thrush Monticola explorator southern Africa Amber Mountain rock thrush Monticola erythronotus Amber Mountain, Madagascar Forest rock thrush Monticola sharpei Madagascar Benson's rock thrush Monticola sharpei bensoni southern-central Madagascar Littoral rock thrush Monticola imerina southern coastal Madagascar Little rock thrush Monticola rufocinereus eastern Afromontane Common rock thrush Monticola saxatilis temperate rocky regions of Palearctic; winters to Africa Blue rock thrush Monticola solitarius temperate and elevated areas of Palearctic;winters to Africa, Arabia and Indomalaya Cape rock thrush Monticola rupestris southern Africa Miombo rock thrush Monticola angolensis Miombo woodlands White-winged cliff chat Monticola semirufus Ethiopian Highlands
Fossil record Monticola pongraczi (Pliocene of Beremend, Hungary) Kessler, E. 2013. Neogene songbirds (Aves, Passeriformes) from Hungary. – Hantkeniana, Budapest, 2013, 8: 37-149.
References
Further reading
External links
Rock thrush videos on the Internet Bird Collection