Microtarsus

Microtarsus
Black-headed bulbul (Microtarsus melanocephalos)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Pycnonotidae
Genus:	Microtarsus Eyton, 1839
Type species
Microtarsus melanoleucos Eyton, 1839
Synonyms
Brachypodius Blyth, 1845 Euptilotus Reichenbach, 1850 Poliolophus Sharpe, 1877

The genus Microtarsus is a genus of songbirds in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae, that are found in South and Southeast Asia.

Taxonomy

The genus Microtarsus was introduced in 1839 by the English naturalist Thomas Campbell Eyton to accommodate a single species, Microtarsus melanoleucos Eyton, the black-and-white bulbul. This is the type species. ^{[1] [2]} The species now placed in this genus were formerly included in the genus Pycnonotus . A molecular phylogenetic study of the bulbul family published in 2017 found that Pycnonotus was polyphyletic. ^[3] In the revision to create monophyletic genera Microtarsus was resurrected to contain the black-headed bulbul that was previously placed in Pycnonotus. ^[4] In 2025 AviList adopted more inclusive genera and merged Brachypodius, Euptilotus and Poliolophus into Microtarsus. ^[5]

The genus contains seven species: ^[5]

Image	Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Puff-backed bulbul	Microtarsus eutilotus	Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Bangka Island, and Borneo
	Black-and-white bulbul	Microtarsus melanoleucos	southern Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Siberut Island, and Borneo
	Yellow-wattled bulbul	Microtarsus urostictus	Philippines (except Palawan group, Mindoro, most of Western Visayas and Sulu Archipelago)
	Grey-headed bulbul	Microtarsus priocephalus	southwestern peninsular India (southern Maharashtra and Goa to western Mysore and Kerala)
	Black-headed bulbul	Microtarsus melanocephalos	east Bangladesh and northeast India through south China, Vietnam, Borneo, Java and Bali
	Andaman bulbul	Microtarsus fuscoflavescens	Andaman Islands
	Blue-wattled bulbul	Microtarsus nieuwenhuisii	Sumatra and Borneo

References

1. Eyton, Thomas Campbell (1839). "Catalogue of a collection of birds from Malaya, with descriptions of the new species". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 7: 100-107 [102].
2. Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1960). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 9. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 223.
3. Shakya, Subir B.; Sheldon, Frederick H. (2017). "The phylogeny of the world's bulbuls (Pycnonotidae) inferred using a supermatrix approach". Ibis. 159 (3): 498–509. doi: 10.1111/ibi.12464 .
4. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2021). "Bulbuls". IOC World Bird List Version 11.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
5. AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi: 10.2173/avilist.v2025 . Retrieved 17 November 2025.