Platysteira
| Platysteira | |
|---|---|
| Brown-throated wattle-eye (Platysteira cyanea) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Platysteiridae |
| Genus: | Platysteira Jardine & Selby, 1830 |
| Type species | |
| Muscicapa melanoptera Gmelin, 1789
| |
| Species | |
|
See text. | |
Platysteira is a genus of birds in the wattle-eye family Platysteiridae that are found in tropical Africa.
Taxonomy
The genus Platysteira was introduced in 1830 by the English naturalists William Jardine and Prideaux John Selby.[1] The name combines the Ancient Greek πλατυς/platus meaning "broad" with στειρα/steira meaning "ship's keel".[2] Jardine and Selby did not specify a type species but in 1840 the English zoologist George Gray designated the type as Muscicapa melanoptera Gmelin, 1789.[3] This is a junior synonym of Muscicapa cyanea, Müller, PLS, 1776, the brown-throated wattle-eye.[4]
The genus contains the following eight species:[5]
- Brown-throated wattle-eye, Platysteira cyanea – west and central Africa
- White-fronted wattle-eye, Platysteira albifrons – lowlands and escarpment of western Angola and adjacent southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Black-throated wattle-eye, Platysteira peltata – central, east and southeast Africa
- Banded wattle-eye, Platysteira laticincta – Bamenda Mountains (western Cameroon)
- Red-cheeked wattle-eye, Platysteira blissetti – humid forest of Guinea and southern Sierra Leone to southern Cameroon
- Black-necked wattle-eye, Platysteira chalybea – humid forest of southern Cameroon and Gabon; Bioko
- Jameson's wattle-eye, Platysteira jamesoni – eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, far southern South Sudan, Uganda, western Kenya, and far northwestern Tanzania
- Yellow-bellied wattle-eye, Platysteira concreta – west and central Africa
References
- ^ Jardine, William; Selby, Prideaux John (1830). Illustrations of Ornithology. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars. Part 7. Addenda, p. 2. Issued in parts. For the publication date see: Zimmer, John T. (1926). "Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library". Field Museum of Natural History, Zoology Series. 16 (1): 322–324.
- ^ Jobling, James A. "Platysteira". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
- ^ Gray, George Robert (1840). A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 31.
- ^ Dickinson, E.C.; Christidis, L., eds. (2014). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World (PDF). Vol. 2: Passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-9568611-2-2.
- ^ AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi:10.2173/avilist.v2025. Retrieved 16 November 2025.