Oenanthe

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: ParaHoxozoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Cladus: Olfactores
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Cladus: Sauropsida
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Cladus: Diapsida
Cladus: Neodiapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Cladus: Archelosauria
Cladus: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crocopoda
Cladus: Archosauriformes
Cladus: Eucrocopoda
Cladus: Archosauria
Cladus: Avemetatarsalia
Cladus: Ornithodira
Cladus: Dinosauromorpha
Cladus: Dinosauriformes
Cladus: Dracohors
Cladus: Dinosauria
Cladus: Saurischia
Cladus: Theropoda
Cladus: Neotheropoda
Cladus: Averostra
Cladus: Tetanurae
Cladus: Avetheropoda
Cladus: Coelurosauria
Cladus: Tyrannoraptora
Cladus: Maniraptoromorpha
Cladus: Maniraptoriformes
Cladus: Maniraptora
Cladus: Pennaraptora
Cladus: Paraves
Cladus: Eumaniraptora
Cladus: Avialae
Subclassis: Aves
Cladus: Avebrevicauda
Cladus: Pygostylia
Cladus: Ornithothoraces
Cladus: Ornithuromorpha
Cladus: Carinatae
Cladus: Neornithes
Infraclassis: Neognathae
Cladus: Neoaves
Cladus: Telluraves
Cladus: Australaves
Ordo: Passeriformes
Subordo: Passeri
Infraordo: Passerides
Parvordo: Muscicapida
Superfamilia: Muscicapoidea

Familia: Muscicapidae
Subfamilia: Saxicolinae
Genus: Oenanthe
Species (33): O. albifrons – O. albonigra – O. bottae – O. chrysopygia – O. cypriaca – O. deserti – O. dubia – O. familiaris – O. finschii – O. frenata – O. fusca – O. halophila – O. heuglinii – O. hispanica – O. isabellina – O. leucopyga – O. leucura – O. lugens – O. lugentoides – O. lugubris – O. melanoleuca – O. melanura – O. moesta – O. monacha – O. oenanthe – O. phillipsi – O. picata – O. pileata – O. pleschanka – O. scotocerca – O. seebohmi – O. warriae – O. xanthoprymna

- O. cypriaca - O. deserti - O. finschii - O. hispanica - O. isabellina - O. leucopyga - - O. monacha - - O. oenanthe - - O. pleschanka -

Name

Oenanthe Vieillot, 1816

Typus: Turdus leucurus Gmelin, 1789 = Oenanthe leucura by monotypy.

Synonymy

Vitiflora Brisson, 1760 Ornithologia 3 p. 449, 452 BHL
Campicola Swainson, 1827 Zool.J. 3 p. 171 BHL
Pentholaea Cabanis, 1850 Mus.Hein. p. 40 BHL
Leucotoa Brehm, 1857 J.Orn. 4 p. 452 BHL
Penthodyta Sundevall, 1872 Meth.Av.Tentam. p. 4 BHL
Philotamma Antinori & Salvadori, 1873 Ann.Mus.Civ.Stor.Nat.Genova 4 p. 466 BHL

References
Primary references

Vieillot, L.P. 1816. Analyse d'une nouvelle ornithologie élémentaire. 70 pp. Paris: Deterville. p. 43 BHL Reference page.

Additional references

Schweizer, M., & Shirihai, H. (2013). Phylogeny of the Oenanthe lugens complex (Aves, Muscicapidae: Saxicolinae): Paraphyly of a morphologically cohesive group within a recent radiation of open-habitat chats. Molecular phylogenetics and evolution 69 (3): 450-461. DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2013.08.010 Reference page.
Shirihai, H., Schweizer, M., Kirwan, G.M., & Svensson, L. 2014. Saxicola syenitica Heuglin, 1869 (Aves: Passeriformes: Muscicapidae), an overlooked taxon of Oenanthe? Zootaxa 3785(1): 1–24. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3785.1.1 Reference page.

Vernacular names
العربية: أبلق
башҡортса: Таштурғай
brezhoneg: Bistrak
català: Còlit
dansk: Stenpikkere
Deutsch: Steinschmätzer
English: Wheatear
Esperanto: Enantoj
español: Collalbas
فارسی: چکچک
suomi: Kivitaskut
føroyskt: Stólpa
français: Traquet
Gaeilge: Clochrán
עברית: סלעית
magyar: Hantmadár
ქართული: მეღორღია
қазақша: Тасшымшықтар
lietuvių: Kūltupiai
Nederlands: Tapuit
norsk nynorsk: Steinskvettar
polski: Białorzytka
português: Chasco
русский: Каменки
svenska: Stenskvättor
Kiswahili: Mhozo
українська: Кам'янка
中文: 水芹属
The wheatears /ˈhwiːtɪər/ are passerine birds of the genus Oenanthe. They were formerly considered to be members of the thrush family, Turdidae, but are now more commonly placed in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. This is an Old World group, but the northern wheatear has established a foothold in eastern Canada and Greenland and in western Canada and Alaska.
Taxonomy

The genus Oenanthe was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with Oenanthe leucura, the black wheatear, as the type species.[2][3] The genus formerly included fewer species but molecular phylogenetic studies of birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae found that the genus Cercomela was polyphyletic with five species, including the type species C. melanura, phylogenetically nested within the genus Oenanthe.[4][5] This implied that Cercomela and Oenanthe were synonyms. The genus Oenanthe (Vieillot, 1816) has taxonomic priority over Cercomela (Bonaparte, 1856) making Cercomela a junior synonym.[4][6] The genus name Oenanthe was used by Aristotle for an unidentified bird. The word is derived from the Greek oenoē meaning "vine" and anthos meaning "bloom". The bird was associated with the grape harvest season.[7]

The name "wheatear" is not derived from "wheat" or any sense of "ear", but is a folk etymology of "white" and "arse", referring to the prominent white rump found in most species.[8]
Description

Most species have characteristic black and white or red and white markings on their rumps or their long tails. Most species are strongly sexually dimorphic; only the male has the striking plumage patterns characteristic of the genus, though the females share the white or red rump patches.
Species list

The genus contains 33 species:[9]

Image	Common Name	Scientific Name	Distribution
	Northern wheatear	Oenanthe oenanthe	Holarctic ; winters to Sub-Saharan Africa
	Atlas wheatear	Oenanthe seebohmi	Maghreb ; winters in western Sahel
	Capped wheatear	Oenanthe pileata	southern Sub-Saharan Africa
-	Buff-breasted wheatear	Oenanthe bottae	Asir Mountains
	Rusty-breasted wheatear	Oenanthe Renata	Ethiopian Highlands
	Isabelline wheatear	Oenanthe isabellina	central-southern Eurasia ; winters to Sub-Saharan, Africa, Middle east and South Asia
-	Heuglin's wheatear	Oenanthe heuglinii	northern Sub-Saharan Africa
	Hooded wheatear	Oenanthe monacha	Middle- ast
	Desert wheatear	Oenanthe deserti	Maghreb and central Asia ; winters to North Africa, Middle East and South Asia
	Western black-eared wheatear	Oenanthe hispanica	western Mediterranean ; winters to western Sahel
	Pied wheatear	Oenanthe pleschanka	central Asia ; winters to East Africa
	Eastern black-eared wheatear	Oenanthe melanoleuca	eastern Mediterranean ; winters to eastern Sahel
	Cyprus wheatear	Oenanthe cypraica	Cyprus
	White-fronted black chat	Oenanthe albifrons	Sudan (region)
-	Somali wheatear	Oenanthe phillipsi	Horn of Africa
	Red-rumped wheatear	Oenanthe moesta	Morocco to Jordan ; partly winters to eastern Saudi Arabia
	Blackstart	Oenanthe melanura	Sahel and Red Sea region
	Familiar chat	Oenanthe familiaris	Sub-Saharan Africa
-	Brown-tailed rock chat	Oenanthe scotocerca	Chad, western Sudan and Horn of Africa
-	Sombre rock chat	Oenanthe dubia	montane desert of central Ethiopia
	Brown rock chat	Oenanthe fusca	northern South Asia
	Variable wheatear	Oenanthe picata	from eastern Iran and southern Kazakhstan to Indus river ; winters to UAE and northwestern India
	Finsch's wheatear	Oenanthe finschii	Anatolia to western Central Asia ; winters to Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
	Maghreb wheatear	Oenanthe halophila	Maghreb
	Mourning wheatear	Oenanthe lugens	Middle East
	Basalt wheatear	Oenanthe warriae	basalt desert of eastern Jordan and southern Syria
	Kurdish wheatear	Oenanthe 'xanthoprymna'	Kurdistan ; winters to Red Sea and southern Arabian Peninsula
	Red-tailed wheatear	Oenanthe chrysopygia	Iran and Pakistan ; winters to Arabian peninsula and northwestern South Asia
	White-crowned wheatear	Oenanthe leucopyga	North Africa and Middle East
	Hume's wheatear	Oenanthe albonigra	Iran, eastern Oman to Indus valley
	Black wheatear	Oenanthe leucura	Iberian Peninsula to western Libya and Mauritania
	Arabian wheatear	Oenanthe lugentoides	Arabian Peninsula
	Abyssinian wheatear	Oenanthe lugubrious	montane East Africa

Behaviour

Wheatears are terrestrial insectivorous birds of open, often dry, country. They often nest in rock crevices or disused burrows. Northern species are long-distance migrants, wintering in Africa.
Fossil record

Oenanthe kormosi (Late Miocene of Polgardi, Hungary) [10]
Oenanthe pongraczi (Pliocene of Csarnota, Hungary) [10]

References

"Muscicapidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, eds. (1960). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 121.
Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1883) [1816]. Saunders, Howard (ed.). Vieillot's Analyse d'une nouvelle ornithologie élémentaire (in French). London. p. 43.
Outlaw, R.K.; Voelker, G.; Bowie, R.C.K. (2010). "Shall we chat? Evolutionary relationships in the genus Cercomela (Muscicapidae) and its relation to Oenanthe reveals extensive polyphyly among chats distributed in Africa, India and the Palearctic". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 55 (1): 284–292. Bibcode:2010MolPE..55..284O. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2009.09.023. PMID 19772925.
Aliabadian, M.; Kaboli, M.; Förschler, M.I.; Nijman, V.; Chamani, A.; Tillier, A.; Prodon, R.; Pasquet, E.; Ericson, P.G.P.; Zuccon, D. (2012). "Convergent evolution of morphological and ecological traits in the open-habitat chat complex (Aves, Muscicapidae: Saxicolinae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 65 (1): 35–45. Bibcode:2012MolPE..65...35A. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2012.05.011. PMID 22634240.
Sangster, George; Collinson, J. Martin; Crochet, Pierre-André; Knox, Alan G.; Parkin, David T.; Votier, Stephen C. (2013). "Taxonomic recommendations for Western Palearctic birds: ninth report". Ibis. 155 (4): 898–907 [903]. doi:10.1111/ibi.12091.
Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 280. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
"Wheatear". Merriam Webster Online. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2023). "Chats, Old World flycatchers". IOC World Bird List Version 13.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
Kessler, E. 2013. Neogene songbirds (Aves, Passeriformes) from Hungary. – Hantkeniana, Budapest, 2013, 8: 37–149.