Creation of hybrid taxon for Setophaga americana x Setophaga pinus

General
1

Hi everyone,

I’d like to propose the creation of a hybrid taxon for Setophaga americana (Northern Parula) × Setophaga pinus (Pine Warbler).

Hybridization within Parulidae is well documented, but this particular combination does not yet appear to be formally recognized or represented on iNaturalist. That said, I have found a compelling (and thankfully well-documented) candidate on the platform (by user mark_hughes) that strongly suggests this pairing may occur.

The individual in question shows a predominance of Northern Parula-like traits, but critically lacks several key diagnostic features required for a confident identification as pure S. americana. Instead, it presents a combination of intermediate and atypical characteristics, including:

  • Instead of a thin, pointy bill, this bird has a large, robust, and relatively blunt bill that lacks the typical yellow lower mandible blending into the throat in Northern Parula.

  • A distinct, well-defined yellow supraloral area typical of Pine Warbler

  • Green mottling confined to the crown, rather than more broadly distributed across the head is atypical for Northern Parula.

  • A broken eye-ring that matches Pine Warbler better.

  • Olive-toned streaking along the flanks

  • Feeding behavior (notably use of a suet feeder) that is more characteristic of Pine Warbler

Taken together, this mosaic of traits does not comfortably fit within the variation expected for either parent species, but is consistent with what might be expected from a hybrid individual.

Here’s some of the observations:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/338033700

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/338324946

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/333729001

Thanks for your consideration.

2

Welcome to the forum, Karim!

I see you flagged the taxon for curation 2 days ago https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/815827

But you’ve written more of your reasoning in this post. As far as I know, the flag is the best place for these types of discussions.

5

I moved this to General as only curators should be starting posts in the Curators category. And as @AdamWargon said, these discussions should be had on taxon flags, not on the forum. So I’m going to set this to close by tomorrow.