Oenanthe fusca (Blyth, 1851)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The brown rock chat (Oenanthe fusca) or Indian chat is a bird species of the family Muscicapidae. It is found mainly in northern and central India. It is often found in old buildings and rocky areas. It resembles a female Indian robin but lacks the reddish vent and differs in posture and behaviour apart from being larger. In flight it bears some resemblance to thrushes and redstarts. It feeds on insects, captured mainly on the ground. It was formerly placed as the sole species in the genus Cercomela but is now included with the wheatears in the genus Oenanthe.
In central India, the local name of Shama has been noted.
Wikipedia contributors, Brown rock chat; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T14:04:41.205306+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Oenanthe fusca (Blyth, 1851)
- Name authority
- (Blyth, 1851)
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Muscicapidae
- Genus
- Oenanthe
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyMuscicapidae Fleming, 1822
- genusOenanthe Vieillot, 1816
- speciesOenanthe fusca (Blyth, 1851)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Oenanthe. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Oenanthe albonigra (Hume, 1872) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Red-breasted WheatearOenanthe bottae (Bonaparte, 1854) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Cyprus WheatearOenanthe cypriaca (Homeyer, 1884) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Desert WheatearOenanthe deserti (Temminck, 1825) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Oenanthe dubia (Blundell & Lovat, 1899) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Black-eared WheatearOenanthe hispanica (Linnaeus, 1758) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Isabelline WheatearOenanthe isabellina (Temminck, 1829) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| White-crowned WheatearOenanthe leucopyga (C. L. Brehm, 1855) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Black WheatearOenanthe leucura (Gmelin, 1789) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Arabian WheatearOenanthe lugentoides (Seebohm, 1881) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Abyssinian WheatearOenanthe lugubris (Rüppell, 1837) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Hooded WheatearOenanthe monacha (Temminck, 1825) | MuscicapidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Cercomela fusca (Blyth, 1851) (Blyth, 1851) | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=916848 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:48X7H. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.