New World Warblers (Parulidae)

Golden-fronted Whitestart (Myioborus ornatus) - HBW 15, p. 786

French: Paruline dorée German: Schwarzohr-Waldsänger Spanish: Candelita Adornada
Other common names: Golden-fronted/Ornate Redstart; Andean Redstart (chrysops)

Taxonomy: Setophaga ornata Boissonneau, 1840, Santa Fé de Bogotá, Colombia.
Forms a superspecies with M. melanocephalus, and possibly also M. albifrons; the three form a monophyletic clade. The two races have discrete ranges, and it has been suggested that chrysops may be more closely related to M. melanocephalus than it is to nominate race of present species, and perhaps, therefore, conspecific with latter; such treatment appears not to be supported by recent study of phylogeny of genus. In potential zone of range overlap (extreme SW Colombia and adjacent NW Ecuador), several records of individuals intermediate in head pattern between race chrysops of present species and race ruficoronatus of M. melanocephalus; these were originally thought to be variants of ruficoronatus, but may be result of hybridization, or even an undescribed race of one or other species; recent record of pair of apparently phenotypically pure chrysops from this area lends weight to hybrid theory. Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

chrysops ( Salvin, 1878) - W & C Andes and S part of E Andes of C & S Colombia; possibly also N Ecuador (Napo).
ornatus ( Boissonneau, 1840) - extreme W Venezuela (Páramo de Tamá, in SW Táchira) and S in E Andes of Colombia (S to Bogotá).