The brown-chested alethe (Chamaetylas poliocephala) is a species of bird in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It has a discontinuous range of presence across the African tropical rainforest.

Brown-chested alethe
C. p. carruthersi in Kakamega Forest
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Chamaetylas
Species:
C. poliocephala
Binomial name
Chamaetylas poliocephala
(Bonaparte, 1850)
Synonyms
  • Pseudalethe poliocephala Bonaparte, 1850
  • Alethe poliocephala (Bonaparte, 1850)

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

Taxonomy edit

The brown-chested alethe was formally described in 1850 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte based on a manuscript by Coenraad Temminck. Bonaparte gave the binomial name as Trichophorus (Griniger) and the locality as Africa. The locality has been restricted to the island of Bioko (formally Fernando Po).[2][3] The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek polios meaning "grey" with -kephalos meaning "-headed".[4] The brown-chested alethe is now one of four species placed in the genus Chamaetylas that was introduced in 1860 by Ferdinand Heine.[5]

Nine subspecies are recognised:[5]

  • C. p. poliocephala (Bonaparte, 1850) – Sierra Leone to Ghana
  • C. p. compsonota (Cassin, 1859) – south Nigeria to southwest Central African Republic, northwest Angola and Bioko
  • C. p. hallae (Traylor, 1961) – west Angola
  • C. p. giloensis (Cunningham-Van Someren & Schifter, 1981) – south Sudan
  • C. p. carruthersi (Ogilvie-Grant, 1906) – southeast Central African Republic, northeast DR Congo, Uganda and west Kenya
  • C. p. akeleyae (Dearborn, 1909) – central Kenya
  • C. p. vandeweghei (Prigogine, 1984) – Rwanda and Burundi
  • C. p. kungwensis (Moreau, 1941) – west Tanzania
  • C. p. ufipae (Moreau, 1942) – southeast DR Congo and southwest Tanzania

References edit

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2018). "Chamaetylas poliocephala". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22708992A131950695. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22708992A131950695.en. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  2. ^ Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1850). Conspectus Generum Avium (in Latin). Vol. 1. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 262.
  3. ^ Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, eds. (1964). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 63.
  4. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 312. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. ^ a b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (July 2023). "Chats, Old World flycatchers". IOC World Bird List Version 13.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 23 July 2023.