Brachypteryx is a genus of passerine birds in the family Muscicapidae containing ten species known as shortwings, that occurs in southeast Asia.
Shortwings are small birds with long legs, finely pointed bills, short tails and short rounded wings. They are shy elusive ground-dwellers that generally prefer the cover of dense undergrowth.
The genus Brachypteryx was introduced by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield in 1821. Horsfield listed several species in the new genus but did not specify a type species. In 1855 the English zoologist George Gray designated the type as Brachypteryx montana Horsfield, the Javan shortwing. The genus name comes from the classical Greek brakhus mean "short" and pterux meaning "wing". The genus was previously placed in the thrush family Turdidae but in 2010 two separate molecular phylogenetic studies found that species in the genus were more closely related to members of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.
The genus contains the following ten species:
Whilst the Javan and rusty-bellied shortwings show strong sexual plumage dimorphism, the lesser shortwing is sexually monomorphic.
Three other species were formerly placed in Brachypteryx: