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.
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) [11]
Oenanthe pongraczi (Pliocene of Csarnota, Hungary) [11]
^
abOutlaw, 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.
doi:
10.1016/j.ympev.2009.09.023.
PMID19772925.
^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.
doi:
10.1016/j.ympev.2012.05.011.
PMID22634240.