Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo

About the Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo

The slaty-capped shrike-vireo (Vireolanius leucotis) is a species of bird in the family Vireonidae, the vireos, greenlets, and shrike-babblers. It is found in every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

The slaty-capped shrike-vireo was originally described in 1838 as Malaconotus leucotis. It was eventually placed in genus Vireolanius but for a time in the early twentieth century it was placed in genus Smaragdolanius and its own family, Vireolaniidae. By the 1970s Smaragdolanius had been merged into Vireolanius and included in the family Vireonidae.

The slaty-capped shrike-vireo's further taxonomy is unsettled. The IOC, the Clements taxonomy, and AviList assign it these four subspecies: V. l. mikettae Hartert, EJO, 1900 V. l. leucotis (Swainson, 1838) V. l. simplex Berlepsch, 1912

V. l. bolivianus Berlepsch, 1901 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) follows as 2014 publication and treats V. l. mikettae as a separate species, the pale-legged shrike-vireo. Clements recognizes that it is distinctive within the larger species by calling it the "slaty-capped shrike-vireo (pale-legged)... Wikipedia →