Moorland chat facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Moorland chat |
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| C. s. sordida, Ethiopia | |
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| P. s. ernesti, Kenya | |
| Conservation status | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Muscicapidae |
| Genus: | Pinarochroa Sundevall, 1872 |
| Species: |
P. sordida
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| Binomial name | |
| Pinarochroa sordida (Rüppell, 1837)
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| Synonyms | |
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Cercomela sordida |
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The moorland chat (Pinarochroa sordida) is a small songbird. It's also called the alpine chat or hill chat. This bird belongs to a group of birds known as Old World flycatchers. You can only find it in north-east Africa. It lives in high places like moors and grassland. These areas are usually above 3,400 meters (11,100 feet) high. Sometimes, they live as low as 2,100 meters (6,900 feet). Moorland chats have short tails and long legs. They are quite brave and might even come close to people!
Contents
About the Moorland Chat's Name
The moorland chat was first officially described in 1837. This was done by a German scientist named Eduard Rüppell. He found a bird in the Simien Mountains of northern Ethiopia. Rüppell gave it the scientific name Saxicola sordica.
How the Moorland Chat Got Its Modern Name
For a long time, the moorland chat was placed in a bird group called Cercomela. But scientists later studied the birds' DNA. This type of study is called molecular phylogenetic research. These studies, done in 2010 and 2012, showed something interesting. The moorland chat was not closely related to other birds in Cercomela. It also wasn't related to birds in the group Oenanthe.
Because of this, the moorland chat got its own special group. This group is called Pinarochroa. The Swedish zoologist Carl Jakob Sundevall first suggested this name in 1872.
The name Pinarochroa comes from Greek words. Pinaros means "dirty" and khroos means "coloured". The second part of its scientific name, sordida, is Latin. It means "shabby" or "dirty".
Different Types of Moorland Chats
There are four known types, or subspecies, of the moorland chat:
- P. s. sordida: This type is found in Ethiopia. It was named by Eduard Rüppell in 1837.
- P. s. ernesti: This type lives in Uganda and Kenya. Richard Bowdler Sharpe named it in 1900.
- P. s. olimotiensis: You can find this type in the Crater Highlands of northern Tanzania. Hugh Elliott named it in 1945.
- P. s. hypospodia: This type lives on Mount Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania. George Ernest Shelley named it in 1885.
Discovering the Moorland Chat
The moorland chat was first found on Mount Elgon. This mountain is on the border between Uganda and Kenya. It was discovered by Frederick John Jackson.
Later, in 1899, the English geographer Halford Mackinder found the same bird. He found it on Mount Kenya. He later gave a speech about his trip to the Royal Geographical Society in 1900. During the discussion, Dr. Bowdler Sharpe talked about the bird:
A very curious little bird was found by Mr Jackson on Mount Elgon at a height of 11,000 feet, and I remember saying to Mr. Mackinder that he was bound to find the same sort of little chat on Mount Kenya, at a height of 11,000 feet. This he did, and it was the same species as the Mount Elgon bird, an ordinary-looking little brown chat, with a good deal of white in the tail.
This shows how scientists connected the birds found in different high-altitude areas.
 | Valerie Thomas |
 | Frederick McKinley Jones |
 | George Edward Alcorn Jr. |
 | Thomas Mensah |
