Western Chat-tanager
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Western Chat-tanager | ||||||||||||||
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NR
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| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Calyptophilus tertius Wetmore, 1929 |
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Calyptophilus frugivorus tertius |
The Western Chat-tanager (Calyptophilus tertius) is a passerine bird belonging to the tanager family, Thraupidae. It is endemic to the island of Hispaniola in the West Indies. It was formerly regarded as a subspecies of the Eastern Chat-tanager (C. frugivorus) but is now usually considered to be a separate species. There is a high degree of divergence between the two in mitochondrial DNA and intron sequences. Speciation is likely to have occurred at a time when present-day Hispaniola consisted of two separate islands.[1]
It is 20 centimetres long. The upperparts are dark brown. The breast and throat are white shading into the grey-brown belly and flanks. There is a yellow patch between the eye and bill. The tail is long and rounded. The bird has whistling and buzzing calls. The Eastern Chat-tanager is similar but has a bare yellow ring around the eye and is smaller at 17 centimetres.
The Western Chat-tanager inhabits wet forest in mountainous areas. It occurs in southern Haiti and in the Sierra de Baoruco in the south-west of the Dominican Republic. It mainly forages on the ground.
[edit] References
- ^ Townsend, Andrea K.; Rimmer, Christopher C.; Latta, Steven C. & Lovette, Irby J.: Speciation from ancient geographic barriers in the endemic Hispaniolan chat-tanagers (Calyptophilus): multi-locus evidence for phylogeographic structure.
- Raffaele, Herbert; Wiley, James; Garrido, Orlando; Keith, Allan & Raffaele, Janis (2003) Birds of the West Indies, Christopher Helm, London.
