Hutton's Vireo

About the Hutton's Vireo

Hutton's vireo (Vireo huttoni) is a small songbird in the family Vireonidae, the vireos, greenlets, and shrike-babblers. It is found from southwestern Canada to Guatemala. Hutton's vireo was originally described in 1851 as Vireo huttoni, its current binomial. The bird's specific epithet and later its English name commemorate William Rich Hutton, "a zealous and talented young naturalist".

The taxonomy of Hutton's vireo is unsettled. The IOC and AviList assign it these 12 subspecies: The Clements taxonomy adds a thirteenth subspecies, V. h. insularis, that the IOC and AviList include within V. h. obscurus. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World does not recognize either the IOC/AviList V. h. oberholseri or the Clements V. h. insularis.

The more northerly coastal subspecies V. h. obscurus through V. h. cognatus in the list above are separated by a wide expanse of desert from the other five subspecies and the two groups differ significantly in their genetics as well. Some authors have suggested that the two groups should be recognized as separate species. Clements recognizes the differences within the species by calling them the "Pacific... Wikipedia →