Western chat-tanager
| Western chat-tanager | |
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| Species: | C. tertius
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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 on two ancient islands which later fused to form present-day Hispaniola.[2]
It is 20 centimetres (7.9 in) 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 cm (6.7 in).
The western chat-tanager inhabits wet forest in mountainous areas. It occurs in southern Haiti and in the Sierra de Bahoruco in the south-west of the Dominican Republic. It mainly forages on the ground.
References
- ^ Template:IUCN
- ^ Andrea K. Townsend, Christopher C. Rimmer, Steven C. Latta & Irby J. Lovette (2007). "Ancient differentiation in the single-island avian radiation of endemic Hispaniolan chat-tanagers (Aves: Calyptophilus)". Molecular Ecology. 16 (17): 3634–3642. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03422.x. PMID 17845436.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Raffaele, Herbert; Wiley, James; Garrido, Orlando; Keith, Allan & Raffaele, Janis (2003) Birds of the West Indies, Christopher Helm, London.