Gould´s shortwing (
Heteroxenicus stellatus) is a small species of passerine bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in the Himalayas (mainly Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Bhutan), Yunnan and northern parts of Myanmar and Vietnam. It breeds in the eastern Himalayas in rocky areas above the tree-line and winters at lower altitude in wooded valleys.
Gould´s shortwing is the only species in the genus
Heteroxenicus. It was formerly placed in the genus
Brachypteryx.
The common name commemorates the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould (1804-1881).
Taxonomy: The first formal description of Gould´s shortwing was by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould in 1868 from a specimen collected in Nepal. He chose the binomial name
Brachypteryx stellatus.
Gould´s shortwing is the only species in the genus
Heteroxenicus. It was formerly placed in the genus Brachypteryx and was assigned to the thrush family Turdidae. The genus
Heteroxenicus had been introduced by Richard Bowdler Sharpe in 1902. The genus name
Heteroxenicus combines the classical Greek words
heteros for "different" and
xenikos for "stranger". The specific epithet
stellata is from the Latin word
stellatus meaning "starry" or "set with stars".
There are two subspecies:
- H. s. stellatus (Gould, 1868) – central Himalayas to south China and northeast Myanmar
- H. s. fuscus (Delacour & Jabouille, 1930) – northwest Vietnam
Gould´s shortwing is in length with a weight of . It is chestnut coloured above and dark grey below with small white spots or stars on its belly. It has long brown legs and a black bill. The sexes are similar. Nothing is known about the nest or the eggs.