Wheatear

Wheatears
Northern wheatear (male)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Muscicapidae
Genus:	Oenanthe Vieillot, 1816
Species
See text.
Synonyms
Cercomela

See text.

Cercomela

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.

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.

The genus name Oenanthe is derived from the Greek oenos (οίνος) "wine" and anthos (ανθός) "flower". It refers to the northern wheatear's return to Greece in the spring just as the grapevines blossom.

This genus formerly included fewer species. 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. This implied that Cercomela and Oenanthe were synonyms. The type species for Oenanthe, (O. leucopyga, Vieillot, 1816) is earlier than the type for Cercomela (C. melanura, Bonaparte, 1856) and has taxonomic priority making Cercomela a junior synonym.

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Wikipedia