Palmchat

About the Palmchat

The palmchat (Dulus dominicus) is a medium-sized passerine bird endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (split between the Dominican Republic and Haiti). It is the only species in the genus Dulus and the family Dulidae, and is related to the waxwing family Bombycillidae and the silky-flycatchers in Ptiliogonatidae. Its name reflects its strong association with palms for feeding, roosting, and nesting.

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the palmchat in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the French colony of Saint-Domingue, modern Haiti. He used the French name Le tangara de S. Dominigue and the Latin Tangara Dominicensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition in 1766, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson, with one of them being the palmchat. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Tanagra dominica and cited Brisson's work.

While Linnaeus... Wikipedia →