Magpie-Robins and Shamas
Copsychus
The magpie-robins or shamas (from shama, Bengali and Hindi for C. malabaricus) are medium-sized insectivorous birds (some also eat berries and other fruit) in the genus Copsychus. They were formerly in the thrush family Turdidae, but are now treated as part of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. They are garden- and forest-dwelling species found in Africa and Asia.
The genus Copsychus was introduced by the German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler in 1827. The type species was subsequently designated as the oriental magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840. The name Copsychus is from the Ancient Greek kopsukhos or kopsikhos, meaning "blackbird".
17 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 17 known species
Oriental Magpie-Robin
speciesCopsychus saularis
White-rumped Shama
speciesCopsychus malabaricus
Indian Robin
speciesCopsychus fulicatus
Madagascar Magpie-Robin
speciesCopsychus albospecularis
White-crowned Shama
speciesCopsychus stricklandii
Sri Lanka Shama
speciesCopsychus leggei
Philippine Magpie-Robin
speciesCopsychus mindanensis
Seychelles Magpie-Robin
speciesCopsychus sechellarum
White-vented Shama
speciesCopsychus niger
Rufous-tailed Shama
speciesCopsychus pyrropygus
Andaman Shama
speciesCopsychus albiventris
White-browed Shama
speciesCopsychus luzoniensis
Black Shama
speciesCopsychus cebuensis
Visayan Shama
speciesCopsychus superciliaris
Larwo shama
speciesCopsychus omissus
Kangean shama
speciesCopsychus nigricauda
Maratua Shama
speciesCopsychus barbouri
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Copsychus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 13157.