Masked Yellowthroat

About the Masked Yellowthroat

The masked yellowthroat (Geothlypis aequinoctialis) is a species of bird in the family Parulidae, the New World warblers. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, and Venezuela. The masked yellowthroat was formally described in 1789 with the binomial Motacilla aequinoctialis, erroneously classing it as a wagtail but calling it the "equatorial warbler".

The masked yellowthroat's taxonomic history since its description is complicated and not yet resolved. Well into the twenty-first century taxonomists included up to five subspecies in it. In 2015 the IOC reclassified two of them as the black-lored yellowthroat (Geothlypis auricularis), a third as the southern yellowthroat (G. velata), and the fourth as the Chiriqui yellowthroat (G. chiriquensis), leaving the masked yellowthroat as monotypic. As of early 2026 it retains these four species.

In 2017 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) separated the black-lored and Chiriqui yellowthroats as species but retained velata as a subspecies of the masked yellowthroat. As of late 2025 it retains this three-species treatment.

In 2018 the American Ornithological... Wikipedia →