Brown-chested alethe

Brown-chested alethe
C. p. carruthersi in Kakamega Forest
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Muscicapidae
Genus:	Chamaetylas
Species:	C. poliocephala
Binomial name
Chamaetylas poliocephala (Bonaparte, 1850)
Synonyms
Pseudalethe poliocephalaBonaparte, 1850 Alethe poliocephala(Bonaparte, 1850)

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.

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

Taxonomy

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

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. 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.