''Wilsonia'' is a small genus of

New World warbler The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds that make up the family Parulidae and are restricted to the New World. They are not closely related to Old World warblers or Australian warblers. Most ...

s which breed in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. They are migratory, wintering south of their breeding ranges in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. The three species are: *

Hooded warbler The hooded warbler (''Setophaga citrina'') is a New World warbler. It breeds in eastern North America and across the eastern United States and into southernmost Canada (Ontario). It is migratory, wintering in Central America and the West Indies. ...

, ''Wilsonia citrina'' *

Wilson's warbler Wilson's warbler (''Cardellina pusilla'') is a small New World warbler. It is greenish above and yellow below, with rounded wings and a long, slim tail. The male has a black crown patch; depending on the subspecies, that mark is reduced or absent ...

, ''Wilsonia pusilla'' *

Canada warbler The Canada warbler (''Cardellina canadensis'') is a small boreal songbird of the New World warbler family (Parulidae). It summers in Canada and northeastern United States and winters in northern South America. Taxonomy In 1760 the French zoologi ...

, ''Wilsonia canadensis'' The hooded warbler is now included in ''

Setophaga ''Setophaga'' is a genus of birds of the New World warbler family Parulidae. It contains at least 33 species. The males in breeding plumage are often highly colorful. The ''Setophaga'' warblers are an example of adaptive radiation with the vario ...

'', while Wilson's and Canada are included in ''

Cardellina ''Cardellina'' is a genus of passerine birds in the New World warbler family Parulidae. The genus name ''Cardellina'' is a diminutive of the Italian dialect word ''Cardella'' for the European goldfinch. The genus was introduced by the French na ...

''. ''Wilsonia'' warblers are long. They have yellow underparts and black head markings in at least the adult male plumage. Two species have plain olive green-brown back, but the Canada warbler has grey upperparts and is also migrates much further than the other species in the genus. The breeding habitat is broadleaved woodlands with dense undergrowth. These

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 ...

s nest low in a bush or on the ground, laying 3–6 eggs in a cup nest. ''Wilsonia'' warblers feed on

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, often caught by flycatching, and they have distinctive songs and loud ''chip'' calls.

Taxonomy

Some authorities suggest that the genus ''Wilsonia'' should include the

red-faced warbler The red-faced warbler (''Cardellina rubrifrons'') is a species of New World warbler. Mature red-faced warblers are small birds, long. They are light gray on top with a white rump and a white underside. The face, neck, and upper breast are all b ...

, which is generally put in the genus ''

''. Recent genetic research has however suggested that the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of ''Wilsonia'' (hooded warbler ''W. citrina'') and of ''

'' (

American redstart The American redstart (''Setophaga ruticilla'') is a New World warbler. It is unrelated to the Old World (common) redstart. Taxonomy The American redstart was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' un ...

''S. ruticilla'') are closely related and should be merged into the same genus. As the name ''Setophaga'' (published in 1827) takes priority over ''Wilsonia'' (published in 1838), hooded warbler would then be transferred as ''Setophaga citrina''. Where this is accepted, the other two ''Wilsonia'' species are then transferred to their next-most closely related genus, ''Cardellina''. This change has been accepted by the North American Classification Committee of the AOU,Chesser, R. T. et al. (2011). Fifty-Second Supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list of North American Birds. ''Auk'' 128 (3): 600-61
fulltext
/ref> and the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

, however the South American Classification Committee of the AOU continues to keep Wilsonia in use. This genus was named to commemorate the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q514515 Parulidae Bird genera Obsolete bird taxa Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte