Phoenicurus

Phoenicurus is a genus of passerine birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, native to Europe, Asia and Africa. They are named redstarts from their orange-red tails ('start' is an old name for a tail). They are small insectivores, the males mostly brightly coloured in various combinations of red, blue, white, and black, the females light brown with a red tail.

==Taxonomy== The genus Phoenicurus was introduced by the English naturalist Thomas Forster in 1817 with the type species (by tautonymy) as the common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus). The name Phoenicurus is from Ancient Greek φοινιξ (phoinix), "(Phoenician) crimson/purple" (see also Tyrian purple), and ουροσ (-ouros) -"tailed". A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 led to a reorganization of the Old World flycatchers family in which the two species in Rhyacornis and the single species in Chaimarrornis were merged into Phoenicurus. thumb|The species in the genus exhibit pronounced sexual dimorphism. Pictured are a male (left) and a female [[Daurian redstart]]