Western spindalis

The western spindalis was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the finches in the genus Fringilla and coined the binomial name Fringilla zena.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1758 | title= Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | volume=1 | edition=10th | page=181 | publisher=Laurentii Salvii | location=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=Latin | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727088 }} Linnaeus based his account on "The Bahama Finch" that had been described and illustrated in 1730 by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands.{{ cite book | last=Catesby | first=Mark | author-link=Mark Catesby | year=1729–1732 | title=The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands | volume=1 | location=London | publisher=W. Innys and R. Manby | language=English, French | page=42, Plate 42 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40753242 }} Published in 11 parts. For the dates see: {{ cite journal | last=Overstreet | first=Leslie K. | date=2014 | title=The dates of the parts of Mark Catesby's The Natural History of Carolina ... (London, 1731–1743 [1729–1747]) | journal=Archives of Natural History | volume=41 | issue=2 | pages=362–364 | doi=10.3366/anh.2014.0256 }} Linnaeus specified the type locality as southern America but this was restricted in 1936 by the Austrian ornithologist Carl Eduard Hellmayr to New Providence in the Bahamas.{{ cite book | last=Hellmayr | first=Carl Eduard | author-link=Carl Eduard Hellmayr | year=1936 | title=Catalogue of Birds of the Americas and the Adjacent Islands in Field Museum of Natural History | series=Field Museum Natural History Publications. Zoological Series | volume=13, Part 9: Tersinidae-Thraupidae | page=239 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2827257 }}{{ cite book | editor-last=Paynter | editor-first=Raymond A. Jr | year=1970 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=13 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=317 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14483552 }} The western spindalis is now one of the four species placed in the genus Spindalis that was introduced in 1837 by William Jardine and Prideaux John Selby.{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela C. Rasmussen | date=August 2024 | title=Enigmatic Oscines | work=IOC World Bird List Version 14.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/enigmas/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=23 February 2025 }} The specific epithet zena is from Ancient Greek ζηνα/zēna or ζηνη/zēnē, a type of finch, probably the European goldfinch.{{ cite web | last=Jobling | first=James A. | title=zena | work=The Key to Scientific Names | url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/key-to-scientific-names/search?q=zena | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | access-date=22 February 2025 }}

Five subspecies are recognised:

• S. z. townsendi Ridgway, 1887 – north Bahamas
• S. z. zena (Linnaeus, 1758) – central, south Bahamas
• S. z. pretrei (Lesson, RP, 1831) – Cuba and Isle of Pines
• S. z. salvini Cory, 1886 – Grand Cayman
• S. z. benedicti Ridgway, 1885 – Cozumel (off southeast Mexico)

The spindalises were traditionally considered aberrant tanagers of the family Thraupidae, but like the equally enigmatic bananaquit (Coereba flaveola), they are formally treated as incertae sedis (place uncertain) among the nine-primaried oscines until the recognition of the family Spindalidae.

The male is brightly colored with a black and white horizontally striped head and contrasting burnt orange throat, breast and nape. The remainder of the belly is light grey. There are two color variations: green-backed (generally northern) and black-backed (generally northern). The female has similar markings on the head, but washed out to a medium grey. She is olive-grey above and greyish-brown below, with a slight orange wash on the breast, rump, and shoulders.

The bird is 6.75(17.1 cm) long, has wingspan of 9.5(24.1 cm) and weighs 21g (0.75 oz)

The species is found in southeastern Florida and the western Caribbean (Cozumel, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands). It is a rare visitor of extreme southern Florida, where the subspecies S. z. zena successfully bred in 2009.

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forest, and heavily degraded former forest. The subspecies zena is found in pine forest and perches on fruit trees. It is a nonmigrantory bird and has a lifespan of 3.29 years.{{Citation |last=Hilty |first=Steven |editor-first1=Josep |editor-first2=Andrew |editor-first3=Jordi |editor-first4=David |editor-first5=Eduardo |editor-last1=Del Hoyo |editor-last2=Elliott |editor-last3=Sargatal |editor-last4=Christie |editor-last5=De Juana |title=Western Spindalis (Spindalis zena) |date=2020-03-04 |work=Birds of the World |url=https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.wesspi.01 |access-date=2025-04-13 |publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology|doi=10.2173/bow.wesspi.01 |url-access=subscription }}

They eat insects, larvae and fruit.{{Cite book |last=Sibley |first=David |title=The Sibley field guide to birds of eastern North America |date=2003 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-679-45120-4 |edition=(1st ed.) |location=New York |pages=358}}

These birds use two different foraging techniques: they glean for fruits, meaning they pluck fruit from the source and they hover for fruits. They typically look for food at medium to high heights off the ground.{{Cite journal |last=Cruz |first=Alexander |date= 1974|title=Feeding Assemblages of Jamaican Birds |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/1365990 |journal=Oxford Journals Oxford University Press |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=103–107 |doi=10.2307/1365990 |jstor=1365990 |issn=0010-5422|url-access=subscription }}

It is not considered a threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Spindalis zena}}

{{Wikispecies|Spindalis zena}}

• {{BirdLife|22722522|Spindalis zena}}
• {{Avibase|name=Spindalis zena}}
• {{InternetBirdCollection|western-spindalis-spindalis-zena|Western spindalis}}
• {{VIREO|Western+spindalis}}
• {{NeotropicalBirds|wesspi|Western spindalis}}
• {{IUCN_Map|22722522/137033144|Spindalis zena}}
• {{Xeno-canto species|Spindalis|zena|Western spindalis}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q918323}}

western spindalis

Category:Native birds of the Southeastern United States

Category:Birds of the Caribbean

western spindalis

western spindalis

Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

{{Passeroidea-stub}}