Réunion stonechat


The Réunion stonechat is a species of stonechat, endemic to the island of Réunion. This small passerine bird is common in clearings and open mountain bushlands there.

Description

Overall, the male is black above and white below, but also with a white supercilium, half-collar, and greater covert patch, and a variable-sized orange patch on the breast. Females differ from males in being browner above, more buff-toned below, and often lacking the white greater covert patch. The white throat and supercilium are the most prominent external differences from the African stonechat S. torquatus, which has a wholly black head including the throat and supercilium.

Taxonomy and etymology

It is a member of the common stonechat superspecies, but it is distinct, together with its closest relative the Madagascan stonechat S. sibilla being insular derivatives of the African stonechat. Its ancestors probably diverged from the sub-Saharan African lineage as it spread across the continent some 2–2.5 mya during the Late Pliocene.
The etymology of the scientific name is from Saxicola, "rock-dweller", from Latin saxum, a rock + incola, dwelling in; and tectes, onomatopoetic New Latin after the species' call, from the Réunion Creole name tec-tec.