African Stonechat

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African Stonechat
Adult male S. t. axillaris, Kenya
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Muscicapidae Genus: Saxicola Species: S. torquata
Binomial name
Saxicola torquata (Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms
Saxicola axillaris

The African Stonechat (Saxicola torquata^[1]) is a member of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. In the past it was usually included in the "Common Stonechat" (Saxicola torquata sensu lato), but all available evidence strongly supports full species status for the European and the Siberian Stonechats, as well as the Fuerteventura Chat and Réunion Stonechat.^[2][3][4]

It has a scattered distribution across much of southern Africa, and more locally north to Senegal and Ethiopia, with outlying populations in the mountains of southwest Arabia and on Madagascar and Grand Comoro Island. It is non-migratory, moving only locally if at all; as a result, it has developed much regional variation, being divided into 17 subspecies, one of which is very distinctive and may deserve recognition as a separate species.^[4]

The males have a black head, a white half-collar, a black back, a white rump, and a black tail; the wings are black with a large white patch on the top side of the inner wing. The upper breast is mostly (but see subspecies, below) dark orange-red, with a sharp or gradual transition to white or pale orange on the lower breast and belly. Females have brown rather than black above and on the head with an indistinct paler eyebrow line, chestnut-buff rather than orange below, and less white on the wings. Both sexes' plumage is somewhat duller and streakier outside the breeding season.^[4]

[edit] Subspecies

The subspecies differ slightly in size, and more in the extent of the orange-red on the upper breast of the males, and whether the lower breast is white with a distinct boundary from the upper breast, or pale orange with an indistinct boundary from the darker upper breast. The extent of the orange-red also varies with time of year, often extending on to the belly outside the breeding season.^[4]

• Saxicola torquata torquata Linnaeus, 1766. Eastern South Africa.
• Saxicola torquata clanceyi Latimer, 1961. Western South Africa.
• Saxicola torquata stonei Bowen, 1932. Central southern Africa, from northernmost South Africa north to Zaire and southwestern Tanzania.
• Saxicola torquata oreobates Clancey, 1956. High altitudes in the Drakensberg and other mountains of Lesotho and immediately adjacent South Africa.
• Saxicola torquata promiscua Hartert, 1922. Western Mozambique, eastern Zambia, central Tanzania. Very limited orange-red on uppermost part of breast only.
• Saxicola torquata altivaga Clancey, 1988. Eastern Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi. Previously included within S. t. promiscua, and very similar to it.
• Saxicola torquata axillaris (Shelley, 1884). Kenya, Uganda, northwestern Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, eastern Zaire.
• Saxicola torquata salax (J. & E. Verreaux, 1851). Northern Angola, western Zaire, Congo, Gabon.
• Saxicola torquata adamauae Grote, 1922. Cameroon.
• Saxicola torquata pallidigula Reichenow, 1892. High altitudes on Mount Cameroon, Cameroon. The largest subspecies.
• Saxicola torquata moptana Bates, 1932. Scattered in the western Sahel region from northern Senegal east to Niger. The smallest subspecies.
• Saxicola torquata nebularum Bates, 1930. Tropical west Africa from Sierra Leone east to Côte d'Ivoire. Extensive orange-red on breast and also flanks.
• Saxicola torquata jebelmarrae Lynes, 1920. Darfur, Sudan.
• Saxicola torquata felix Bates, 1936. Southwestern Saudi Arabia and western Yemen.
• Saxicola torquata sibilla (Linnaeus, 1766). Madagascar.
• Saxicola torquata voeltzkowi Grote, 1926. Grand Comoro Island.
• Saxicola torquata albofasciata (Rüppell, 1845). Ethiopian highlands. Very distinct, likely a separate species; upper breast black, not orange-red as in the others.

[edit] Relationships

The closest living relative of this species is the Réunion Stonechat. These two form a sub-Saharan African lineage that diverged from the Eurasian one in the Late Pliocene, roughly 2.5 mya; Réunion was colonized immediately thereafter.^[3]

The recent separation as species was proposed after mtDNA cytochrome b sequence and nDNA microsatellite fingerprinting analysis of specimens of the subspecies Saxicola torquata axillaris but not S. t. torquata, and hence this species was briefly known as S. axillaris.^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ Etymology: Saxicola, "rock-dweller", from Latin saxum, a rock + incola, one who dwells in a place; torquata, Latin for "collared".
2. ^ Wittmann, U., Heidrich, P., Wink, M., & Gwinner, E. (1995). Speciation in the Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) inferred from nucleotide sequences of the cytochrome b-gene. J. Zoo. Syst. Evol. Res. 33: 116-122.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Wink, M., Sauer-Gürth, H., & Gwinner, E. (2002). Evolutionary relationships of stonechats and related species inferred from mitochondrial-DNA sequences and genomic fingerprinting. British Birds 95: 349-355. PDF fulltext
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Urquhart, E. (2002). Stonechats. Helm ISBN 0-7136-6024-4.