Helmetshrike

Helmetshrikes are the eight species of smallish to mid-sized African passerine birds in the genus Prionops. They were previously included with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, later on split between several presumably closely related groups such as bushshrikes (Malaconotidae) and cuckooshrikes (Campephagidae), but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group into the family Vangidae.

==Taxonomy== The genus Prionops was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot to accommodate a single species, "Le Geoffroy", that had been described in 1799 by the French naturalist François Levaillant based on specimens collected in Senegal. Levaillant did not coin a Latin name for "Le Geoffroy" but in 1809 George Shaw introduced the binomial name Lanius plumatus for Levaillant's bird. This species, the white-crested helmetshrike, is the type species of the genus Prionops. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek πριων/priōn, πριονος/prionos meaning "a saw" with ωψ/ōps, ωπος/ōpos meaning "eye".