| White-winged Warbler | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Thraupidae |
| Genus: | Xenoligea Bond, 1967 |
| Species: | X. montana |
| Binomial name | |
| Xenoligea montana (Chapman, 1917) |
|
The White-winged Warbler (Xenoligea montana), also called Hispaniolan Highland-tanager, is a species of bird formerly classified in the Parulidae family. It is the only member of the genus Xenoligea, and is found solely in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the island of Hispaniola.
The bird is 13–14 cm with a long, long tail and robust beak. Upper back and rump are olive green, head is dark grey, tail and wings are blackish. Eyes have apartial white eye-ring and a white stripe going down towards the beak. Underparts are white, turning to gray on the flanks.
Recently it has been shown be too distant genetically from the Parulidae proper to be included there with good justification. Instead, DNA evidence supports including it in Thraupidae in a clade with its sister genus Microligea, and the Phaenicophilus palm-tanagers - and in fact, it looks like rather like a miniature version of Phaenicophilus.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forest and subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland, usually at altitudes above 1,300 meters. It is threatened by habitat loss. It feeds both on fruits and insects, foraging in the underbrush and all the way up to the forest canopy. It frequently joins mixed foraging flocks of other warblers.