Brachypodius

The genus Brachypodius is a small genus of songbirds in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae, that are found in South and Southeast Asia.

Brachypodius
Grey-headed bulbul
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Pycnonotidae
Genus:	Brachypodius Blyth, 1845
Type species
Lanius melanocephalos (Black-headed bulbul) Gmelin, JF, 1788

Taxonomy

The genus Brachypodius was introduced in 1845 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth to accommodate the black-headed bulbul.^[1] The word Brachypodius combines the Ancient Greek brakhus meaning "short" with pous, podos meaning "foot".^[2]

These species were formerly placed in the genus Pycnonotus. A molecular phylogenetic study of the bulbul family published in 2017 found that Pycnonotus was polyphyletic.^[3] In the revision to create monophyletic genera Brachypodius was resurrected to contain four species that were previously placed in Pycnonotus.^[4]

The genus contains four species:^[4]

• Grey-headed bulbul (Brachypodius priocephalus)
• Black-headed bulbul (Brachypodius melanocephalos)
• Andaman bulbul (Brachypodius fuscoflavescens)
• Blue-wattled bulbul (Brachypodius nieuwenhuisii)

References

1. Blyth, Edward (1845). "Notices and descriptions of various new or little known species of birds (continued)". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 14, Part 2 (164): 546–602 [576].
2. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
3. Shakya, Subir B.; Sheldon, Frederick H. (2017). "The phylogeny of the world's bulbuls (Pycnonotidae) inferred using a supermatrix approach". Ibis. 159 (3): 498–509. doi:10.1111/ibi.12464.
4. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2021). "Bulbuls". IOC World Bird List Version 11.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 27 June 2021.