MacGillivray's Warbler

About the MacGillivray's Warbler

MacGillivray's warbler (Geothlypis tolmiei) is a species of bird in the family Parulidae, the New World warblers. It is found from southeastern Alaska and western Canada to Panama. MacGillivray's warbler was formally described by John Townsend in 1839 with the binomial Sylvia Tolmiei [sic] and the English name "Tolmie's Warbler". He drew on paintings in Audubon's Birds of America, in which Audubon had confused it with what was later named the mourning warbler (Geothlypis philadelphia). Townsend's names honor his friend William Fraser Tolmie. MaGillivray's and the mourning warblers are sister species and hybridize extensively. Audubon gave the species its current English name to honor William MacGillivray.

MacGillivray's warbler was long assigned to the genus Oporornis. The American Ornithological Society moved it to its present genus Geothlypis in 2011. The IOC made the change in 2012, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) in 2016, and the Clements taxonomy by 2018.

However, the further taxonomy of MacGillivray's warbler is unsettled. The IOC, HBW, and AviList assign it two subspecies, the nominate G. t. tolmiei (Townsend, 1839... Wikipedia →