The white-banded mockingbird (''Mimus triurus'') 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
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
,
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 ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
,
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
, and
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
.
[Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 21 June 2021. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved June 24, 2021]
Taxonomy and systematics
The white-banded mockingbird and the
brown-backed mockingbird
The brown-backed mockingbird (''Mimus dorsalis'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in Argentina and Bolivia.
Taxonomy and systematics
The brown-backed mockingbird is a sister species to the white-banded mockingbird (' ...
(''Mimus dorsalis'') are
sister species
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and t ...
. Both are
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 ...
.
[Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 23 May 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved May 24, 2021][
]
Description
The white-banded mockingbird is long and weighs . The male is slightly larger than the female. Adults have a grayish crown, a white supercilium
The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also ...
, a blackish line through the eye, and speckled cheeks. Their upperparts are smoky gray blending to reddish cinnamon on the rump. The central third of the tail is black and the outer feathers white. The folded wing shows a broad white band; the rest of the wing is blackish. The white on the wings and tail are conspicuous in flight. The adults are mostly whitish below; the sides and flanks have a cinnamon wash and the vent area is buffy. The juvenile is similar but with a spotted breast and less white in the wing.[Cody, M. L. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). White-banded Mockingbird (''Mimus triurus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.whbmoc1.01 retrieved July 22, 2021]
Distribution and habitat
The white-banded mockingbird breeds primarily in central Argentina. In the non-breeding season it apparently withdraws from the southernmost part of its range and is also found in 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 ...
, Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
, and Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
. It is suspected to regularly breed in all of these countries except Brazil and Chile. Vagrants have been recorded in Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
and the Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...
.[
The white-banded mockingbird inhabits a variety of landscapes including low woodlands, savanna, open brushy country, steppe, and around human habitations. It is mostly found below of elevation but breeds as high as in northern Argentina and as a non-breeder reaches higher in Bolivia and Chile.][
]
Behavior
Feeding
The white-banded mockingbird is thought to be mostly insectivorous in the breeding season but almost nothing is known otherwise.[
]
Breeding
The white-banded mockingbird's nest is an open bowl made of twigs lined with softer material. It is placed low in vegetation, often a thorny bush. It lays its clutch of four eggs (occasionally three) in November and December. Nests are frequently parasitized by the shiny cowbird
The shiny cowbird (''Molothrus bonariensis'') is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds in most of South America except for dense forests and areas of high altitude such as mountains. Since 1900 the shiny cowbird's range ha ...
(''Molothrus bonariensis'').[
]
Vocalization
The white-banded mockingbird is a " perlative songster, the most outstanding of genus". Its song is " a long, loud and extended stream of melodic notes and phrases" and it is an excellent mimic.[
]
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 white-banded mockingbird as being of Least Concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...
.[ It is fairly common to common in most of its range, though the widely scattered breeding records north of Argentina may indicate a more precarious situation there.][
]
Gallery
File:Mimus triurus, Buenos Aires, Argentina 11.jpg, In Buenos Aires, Argentina
File:Mimus triurus, Cruz Alta, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil 1.jpg, In Cruz Alta, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3315529
white-banded mockingbird
The white-banded mockingbird (''Mimus triurus'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D ...
Birds of South America
Birds of Bolivia
Birds of Paraguay
Birds of Uruguay
Birds of Argentina
white-banded mockingbird
The white-banded mockingbird (''Mimus triurus'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D ...
Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot