Chihuahuan meadowlark (''Sturnella lilianae''), also known as Lilian's meadowlark, is a
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
Icteridae
Icterids () or New World blackbirds make up a family, the Icteridae (), of small to medium-sized, often colorful, New World passerine birds. Most species have black as a predominant plumage color, often enlivened by yellow, orange, or red. The ...
. It is found in northern
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 ...
and the southwestern portion of the United States. It was formerly usually treated as a
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
of the
eastern meadowlark
The eastern meadowlark (''Sturnella magna'') is a medium-sized blackbird (family: Icteridae), very similar in appearance to sister species western meadowlark. It occurs from eastern North America to northern South America, where it is also most w ...
(''Sturnella magna'').
Taxonomy
The Chihuahuan meadowlark was
formally described in 1930 by the American ornithologist
Harry C. Oberholser
Harry Church Oberholser (June 25, 1870 – December 25, 1963) was an American ornithologist.
Biography
Harry Oberholser was born to Jacob and Lavera S. Oberholser on June 25, 1870, in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Columbia University, but did ...
as a
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
of the
eastern meadowlark
The eastern meadowlark (''Sturnella magna'') is a medium-sized blackbird (family: Icteridae), very similar in appearance to sister species western meadowlark. It occurs from eastern North America to northern South America, where it is also most w ...
based on a
holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...
that had been collected in the
Huachuca Mountains
The Huachuca Mountains are part of the Sierra Vista Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest in Cochise County in southeastern Arizona, approximately south-southeast of Tucson and southwest of the city of Sierra Vista. Included in this ar ...
of Arizona. Oberholser proposed the
trinomial name
In biology, trinomial nomenclature refers to names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany.
In zoology
In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or ternary ...
''Sturnella magna lilianae''.
The epithet ''lilianae'' was chosen to honor Lilian Hanna Baldwin (wife of Senator Samuel Prentiss Baldwin).
[ It is now treated as a separate species based on the significant morphological, vocal and genomic differences between the Chihuahuan meadowlark and the other subspecies of the eastern meadowlark.]
Two subspecies are recognised:[
* ''Sturnella lilianae lilianae'' Oberholser, 1930 – southwest USA and northwest Mexico (]Chihuahuan Desert
The Chihuahuan Desert ( es, Desierto de Chihuahua, ) is a desert ecoregion designation covering parts of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It occupies much of far West Texas, the middle to lower Rio Grande Valley and the lower P ...
)
* ''Sturnella lilianae auropectoralis'' Saunders, GB, 1934 – west-central Mexico
References
Sturnella
Birds described in 1930
Taxa named by Harry C. Oberholser
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
{{Icteridae-stub