The spectacled whitestart or spectacled redstart (''Myioborus melanocephalus'') 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 Parulidae. It is found in humid Andean forests, woodland and scrub from southern

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Taxonomy

The spectacled whitestart was described in 1844 as ''Setophaga melanocephala'', from a

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

collected in Maraynioc, Peru. It is sometimes known as the spectacled redstart. It forms a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

group along with the yellow-fronted whitestart (''M. ornatus''), the white-fronted whitestart (''M. albifrons''), and the

golden-fronted whitestart The golden-fronted whitestart (''Myioborus ornatus'') or the golden-fronted redstart, is a species of bird in the family Parulidae The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds that make up the ...

(''M. chrysops''). Whether all four form distinct species has been a matter of debate. ''M. melanocephalus'' and ''M. ornatus'' were previously considered the same species, and in the areas where the two come into contact in the southern Colombian Andes, intermediate phenotypes have been observed. The placement of ''M. m. ruficoronatus'' within the spectacled whitestart has also been questioned by molecular studies; ''M. m. ruficoronatus'' has been previously classified as a separate species, as has ''M. m. griseonuchus''. The

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

recognizes five subspecies within the spectacled whitestart; ''M. m. ruficoronatus'', found in the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

from Southwestern Colombia to Southern Ecuador; ''M. m. griseonuchus'', found in the Western cordillera of the Andes in Northwestern Peru; ''M. m. malaris'', found in the Central cordillera of the Andes in Northern Peru; ''M. m. melanocephalus'', found in the Eastern cordillera of the Andes in central Peru; and ''M. m. bolivianus'' found in the Andes of Southern Peru and Western Bolivia.

Description

The spectacled whitestart generally weighs between 10 and 13 grams, and is between long. The species has a black face and crown, while the nape of the neck and the back are grey. The tail is largely black, but the outermost feathers have some white on them. The underside of the throat, from the throat to the tail, is yellow. The

undertail coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...

are white. The beak and the legs are black, while the iris is dark. Males and females are indistinguishable. Juveniles have grey on the head and back, and have an underside that is paler yellow. The species has prominent yellow "spectacles" on the face formed by a ring around the eye and a stripe running under the lores, which give the bird its name. Relative to the nominate subspecies, ''M. melanocephalus melanocephalus'', the subspecies ''M. m. bolivanus'' is slightly smaller, and is paler in the coloration of its underside. The black region on the face is more extensive in ''M. m. malaris''. ''M. m. griseonuchus'' also has more extensive black on its face, to a similar extent as ''M. m. malaris'', but also has a tiny patch of rufous brown on its crown. ''M. m. ruficoronatus'' has a larger rufous patch, but is otherwise similar to ''M. m. melanocephalus'' in the rest of its coloration.

References

spectacled whitestart Birds of the Northern Andes spectacled whitestart Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Parulidae-stub