| Moorland chat | |
|---|---|
_composite.jpg) | |
| C. s. sordida,Ethiopia | |
 | |
| P. s. ernesti,Kenya | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Muscicapidae |
| Genus: | Pinarochroa Sundevall, 1872 |
| Species: | P. sordida |
| Binomial name | |
| Pinarochroa sordida (Rüppell, 1837) | |
| Synonyms | |
Cercomela sordida | |
Themoorland chat (Pinarochroa sordida), also known as thealpine chat orhill chat, is a species of songbird in the Old World flycatcherfamily. It isendemic to the easternAfromontane. It lives at high altitudes onmoors andgrassland, usually above 3,400 m (11,100 ft), but can live as low as 2,100 m (6,900 ft).[2] It has a short tail and long legs. It is bold and will approach people.
The moorland chat wasformally described in 1837 by the German naturalistEduard Rüppell from a specimen collected in theSimien Mountains of northern Ethiopia. Rüppell coined thebinomial nameSaxicola sordica.[3][4]
The chat was discovered onMount Elgon on theUganda-Kenya border byFrederick Jackson. The English geographerHalford Mackinder brought back the same bird fromMount Kenya in 1899.[5] He presented a paper on the first ascent to theRoyal Geographical Society in 1900. The scientific results of his expedition were discussed in detail afterwards.
A very curious little bird was found by Mr Jackson on Mount Elgon at a height of 11,000 feet, and I remember saying to Mr. Mackinder that he was bound to find the same sort of little chat on Mount Kenya, at a height of 11,000 feet. This he did, and it was the same species as the Mount Elgon bird, an ordinary-looking little brown chat, with a good deal of white in the tail.
— Dr Bowdler Sharpe,A Journey to the Summit of Mount Kenya, British East Africa: Discussion[5]
The moorland chat was usually placed in the genusCercomela, butmolecular phylogenetic studies published in 2010 and 2012 found that the species was not closely related to birds inCercomela or to birds in the closely related genusOenanthe.[6][7] The moorland chat was therefore assigned to its ownmonotypic genusPinarochroa which had been introduced by the Swedish zoologistCarl Jakob Sundevall in 1872.[8][9][10] The genus namePinarochroa is derived from theGreek wordpinaros meaning "dirty" andkhroos, khroas meaning "coloured". Thespecific epithetsordida is from the Latinsordidus meaning "shabby" or "dirty".[11]
Foursubspecies are recognised:[8]
_I-Haryana_IMG_8045.jpg) | This article about anOld World flycatcher is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
