Nilgiri Blue Robin - Taxonomy and Systematics

Taxonomy and Systematics

Thomas C. Jerdon obtained a specimen of the rufous-bellied species from the Nilgiris and called it Phaenicura major ("Large Red-start") in 1844 but Edward Blyth suggested that the species should be placed in the genus Callene that he had separated from the already extant Brachypteryx, a genus in which he also placed the Blue-fronted Robin (now Cinclidium frontale then Callene frontalis). Jerdon then suggested the new name of Callene rufiventris, a name not used due to the priority given to the names first proposed. Eugene Oates in the first edition of The Fauna of British India moved the species back into the genus Brachypteryx stating that they were congeneric with Brachypteryx montana while also noting that the young birds were speckled as in true-thrushes like Callene (as represented by the Blue-fronted Robin). Oates also used the name "Rufous-bellied Short-wing". This genus placement was carried on in the second edition of The Fauna of British India (1924) by E. C. Stuart Baker but was demoted into a subspecies on the basis of a specimen collected by T. F. Bourdillon at Mynal which was claimed to be intermediate to the two forms. Claud Buchanan Ticehurst in 1939 reaffirmed the genus placement. This treatment as subspecies was carried forward by Salim Ali and Sidney Dillon Ripley in their "Handbook" until the old two species were restored by P C Rasmussen in 2005. In the Birds of South Asia (2005), however they moved the species tentatively into the genus Myiomela based on morphological similarities and pointed out that the placement in Brachypteryx was in error.

In 2010, DNA sequence studies suggested an ancient divergence in these two populations and confirmed their elevation to full species. The genus position was however not settled. Another 2010 molecular phylogenetics study suggested that the genus Brachypteryx (the taxa sampled however, did not include the peninsular Indian forms) which was earlier thought to belong to the thrush family Turdidae belonged to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. The type species of Brachypteryx, B. montana, shows strong sexual dimorphism.