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Mockingbirds and Thrashers (Mimidae)

Tropical Mockingbird (Mimus gilvus) - HBW 10, p. 485

French: Moqueur des savanes German: Tropenspottdrossel Spanish: Sinsonte Tropical
Other common names: San Andres/St Andrew/Large-billed Mockingbird (magnirostris); Blue-grey Mockingbird (antelius)

Taxonomy: Turdus gilvus Vieillot, 1808, French Guiana.
Forms a superspecies, and sometimes considered conspecific, with M. polyglottos; apparent hybrids between the two reported in S Mexico. Race magnirostris sometimes treated as a separate species; antelius may also merit elevation to full species level. Population of tolimensis in Pacific lowlands of Central America (El Salvador S to Panama) originates largely from escaped cagebirds imported from Colombia. Ten subspecies currently recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

  • gracilis Cabanis, 1851 - S Mexico (E from E Veracruz and E Oaxaca) S to Honduras and El Salvador.
  • leucophaeus Ridgway, 1888 - Yucatán Peninsula, Cozumel I and other offshore islands.
  • magnirostris Cory, 1887 - San Andrés I, in SW Caribbean (off E Nicaragua).

     See all 10 subspecies
  • gracilis Cabanis, 1851 - S Mexico (E from E Veracruz and E Oaxaca) S to Honduras and El Salvador.
  • leucophaeus Ridgway, 1888 - Yucatán Peninsula, Cozumel I and other offshore islands.
  • magnirostris Cory, 1887 - San Andrés I, in SW Caribbean (off E Nicaragua).
  • rostratus Ridgway, 1884 - S Caribbean islands (Aruba E to Blanquilla).
  • antillarum Hellmayr & Seilern, 1915 - Lesser Antilles S from Antigua.
  • tolimensis Ridgway, 1904 - E El Salvador S to Costa Rica and C Panama, and W & C Colombia S to extreme N Ecuador.
  • melanopterus Lawrence, 1849 - N & NE Colombia, most of Venezuela (including Margarita I and Los Testigos), Guyana and N Brazil (Roraima).
  • tobagensis Dalmas, 1900 - Trinidad and Tobago.
  • gilvus (Vieillot, 1808) - Suriname and French Guiana.
  • antelius Oberholser, 1919 - coastal NE & E Brazil (S to Rio de Janeiro).
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