The blue-and-white mockingbird (''Melanotis hypoleucus'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family Mimidae. It is found in

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

, and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The blue-and-white mockingbird is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

. It and the blue mockingbird (''Melanotis caerulescens'') are the only species in their genus.

Description

The blue-and-white mockingbird is long; 20 specimens had a mean mass of . The adults' upperparts are a dull slate blue that is slightly brighter on the crown. The wings and tail are slaty black. A conspicuous black "mask" covers from the lores past the eye. The underparts are white darkening to bluish or slate gray on the flanks and vent area. The juvenile has a similar pattern but its upperparts are dull slaty gray instead of blue.Soberanes-González, C. A., C. I. Rodríguez-Flores, M. d. C. Arizmendi, G. M. Kirwan, and T. S. Schulenberg (2020). Blue-and-white Mockingbird (''Melanotis hypoleucus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bawmoc1.01 retrieved July 23, 2021

Distribution and habitat

The blue-and-white mockingbird is a year round resident of Mexico from south of the

Isthmus of Tehuantepec The Isthmus of Tehuantepec () is an isthmus in Mexico. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Before the opening of the Panama Canal, it was a major overland transport route known simply as the Te ...

through Guatemala to El Salvador and southern Honduras. It inhabits a variety of landscapes including the edges of humid evergreen forest, pine-oak forest, second growth, and humid and semi-arid scrublands. In elevation it ranges between .

Behavior

Feeding

The blue-and-white mockingbird primarily forages on the ground, by sweeping aside leaf litter with its bill. Though its diet has not been fully documented, its primary food appears to be invertebrates and it also eats small fruits.

Breeding

The blue-and-white mockingbird's breeding season extends at least from May to August. Females build the nest, a shallow cup of fibrous roots on top of a platform of sticks. It is placed in dense thickets or small trees. The clutch size is two. The female incubates the eggs and broods the nestlings but both sexes feed them.

Vocalization

The blue-and-white mockingbird's song has been described as "an amazing medley of bird notes... ncludinga rapid series of monosyllables, now a shrill squeak, now a whistle, now a guttural croak...certainly not musical or harmonious". It also has a wide variety of calls.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the blue-and-white mockingbird as being of Least Concern. Though it has a large geographic range, its population has not been quantified and " bitat destruction or degradation may jeopardize the viability of populations".