Oenanthe melanura (Temminck, 1824)
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.
Blackstart Oenanthe melanura at Sde Boker, Israel
Artemy Voikhansky · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The blackstart (Oenanthe melanura) is a chat found in desert regions in North Africa, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. It is resident throughout its range.
The blackstart is 14 cm (5.5 in) long and is named for its black tail, which is frequently fanned; the rest of its plumage is bluish-grey or grey-brown (North African races being browner, Middle Eastern races bluer). The sexes are similar. The song is a clear melancholy whistle: CHURlee...TRUloo...CHURlee...TRUlur..., with short phrases from the song used as a call.
The habitats of blackstarts are rocky deserts and mountain slopes; they nest in rock crevices lay 3–4 eggs. They feed on insects, taken mainly on the ground. The blackstart is a confident species, unafraid of people.
Wikipedia contributors, Blackstart; 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 melanura (Temminck, 1824)
- Name authority
- (Temminck, 1824)
- 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 melanura (Temminck, 1824)
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 |
| Oenanthe fusca (Blyth, 1851) | 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 |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Cercomela melanura (Temminck, 1824) (Temminck, 1824) | 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=916847 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.
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:48X93. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.