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Luscinia
Sign in to saveLuscinia is a genus of smallish passerine birds, containing the nightingales and relatives. Formerly classed as members of the thrush family Turdidae, they are now considered to be Old World flycatchers (Muscicapidae) of the chat subfamily (Saxicolinae). The chats are a lineage of Old World flycatchers that has evolved convergently to thrushes.
Luscinia is a genus of small songbirds that includes nightingales and related species, found in the Old World. Scientists recently reclassified these birds from the thrush family to the Old World flycatcher family, recognizing that chats—the subfamily these birds belong to—evolved similar traits to thrushes independently rather than being closely related to them.
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Species
Luscinia
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassAves
- OrderPasseriformes
- FamilyMuscicapidae
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Luscinia is a genus of smallish passerine birds, containing the nightingales and relatives. Formerly classed as members of the thrush family Turdidae, they are now considered to be Old World flycatchers (Muscicapidae) of the chat subfamily (Saxicolinae). The chats are a lineage of Old World flycatchers that has evolved convergently to thrushes.
==Taxonomy and systematics== The word Luscinia was used for nightingales and similar birds in Classical Latin (e.g. in the AD 70s Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder), if not earlier. Etymologically, it might be derived from luscus (Latin for "half-blind", "half-understood" etc.) or clueō (Latin for "to be well-known") + (probably) Latin canō "to sing". Hence, it could be translated as "little-seen [as in the twilight] songster" or "famous songster". The genus Luscinia was introduced by the English naturalist Thomas Forster in 1817. The type species is the common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos).