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Microligea palustris

Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Classis: Aves
Subclassis: Carinatae
Infraclassis: Neornithes
Parvclassis: Neognathae
Ordo: Passeriformes
Subordo: Passeri
Parvordo: Passerida
Superfamilia: Passeroidea
Familia: Parulidae
Genus: Microligea
Species: Microligea palustris

Name

Microligea palustris Cory, 1884

The Green-tailed Warbler (Microligea palustris), also known as the Green-tailed Ground Warbler, is a species of songbird endemic to the island of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) and adjacent islets.

The bird is 12–14 cm long, with a long tail, olive green upper-parts, grayish head, face and throat. Under-parts are off-white. The eye, which is red in adults and brown in juveniles, is surrounded by an incomplete white eye-ring. Populations on higher ground tend to be larger and darker than those in lowlands.

Generally placed in the New World "warbler" family Parulidae, it constitutes a monotypic genus Microligea. Recently it has turned out to be too distant from the Parulidae proper to be included there with good justification, while including it Thraupidae has been accepted since DNA evidence supports that it belongs in the same clade as its sister genus Xenoligea, and the Phaenicophilus palm-tanagers.

The bird is insectivorous and usually rumages close to ground level and in the underbrush. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and heavily degraded former forest, ranging in altitude from sea level to montane highs of over 2,500 meters. The population of Beata Island is thought to be an endemic subspecies: M. palustris vasta.

References

* S. Latta, et al. Aves de la República Dominicana y Haití. Princeton University Press, 2006.

* BirdLife International 2004. Microligea palustris. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 26 July 2007.
* WHAT IS A WOOD-WARBLER? MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF A MONOPHYLETIC PARULIDAE. I. J. Lovette and E. Bremingham. The Auk, nº 119, 2002.

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Source: Wikipedia, Wikispecies: All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License