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The western spindalis (''Spindalis zena'') is a songbird species. It was formerly considered conspecific with the other three species of spindalis, with the common name stripe-headed tanager.


Taxonomy

The spindalises were traditionally considered aberrant tanagers of the family Thraupidae, but like the equally enigmatic
bananaquit The bananaquit (''Coereba flaveola'') is a species of passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. Before the development of molecular genetics in the 21st century, its relationship to other species was uncertain and it was either placed with ...
(''Coereba flaveola''), they are formally treated as '' incertae sedis'' (place uncertain) among the nine-primaried oscines until the recognition of the family spindalidae.


Description

The male is brightly colored with a black and white horizontally striped head and contrasting burnt orange throat, breast and nape. The remainder of the belly is light grey. There are two color variations: green-backed (generally northern) and black-backed (generally northern). The female has similar markings on the head, but washed out to a medium grey. She is olive-grey above and greyish-brown below, with a slight orange wash on the breast, rump, and shoulders. They are long and weigh .


Distribution and habitat

The species is found in southeastern Florida and the western
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
( Cozumel, the
Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...
, Cuba, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands). It is a rare visitor of extreme southern Florida, where the subspecies ''S. z. zena'' successfully bred in 2009. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, and heavily degraded former forest. The subspecies ''zena'' is found in pine forest.


Conservation

It is not considered a threatened species by 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 ...
.


Subspecies

* ''Spindalis zena zena'': Central Bahamas * ''Spindalis zena townsendi'': Grand Bahama Island, the Abacos and Green Turtle Cay * ''Spindalis zena pretrei'': Cuba, Isle of Pines and adjacent offshore cays * ''Spindalis zena salvini'': Grand Cayman Island * ''Spindalis zena benedicti'': Cozumel Island


References


External links

* * * * * * * western spindalis Native birds of the Southeastern United States Birds of the Caribbean western spindalis western spindalis Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Passeroidea-stub