Santa Cruz fantail | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Rhipiduridae |
Genus: | Rhipidura |
Species: | R. melanolaema
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Binomial name | |
Rhipidura melanolaema
Sharpe, 1879
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The Santa Cruz fantail (Rhipidura melanolaema) is a species of bird in the family Rhipiduridae that is endemic to the Santa Cruz Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Australian rufous fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons).
The Santa Cruz fantail was formally described in 1879 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe based on a specimen collected on Vanikoro in the Santa Cruz Islands. Sharpe placed it with the fantails in the genus Rhipidura and coined the binomial name Rhipidura melanolaema. This was a replacement name for Muscylva pectoralis Pucheran, 1853, that was preoccupied by Leucocirca pectoralis Jerdon, 1843. [1] [2] The specific epithet melanolaema combines the Ancient Greek melas meaning "black" with laimos meaning "throat". [3] The Santa Cruz fantail was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the rufous fantail (renamed the Australian rufous fantail) (Rhipidura rufifrons) but is now treated as a separate species mainly based on the genetic differences. [4] [5]
Three subspecies are recognised: [5]