Cistothorus Explained

Cistothorus is a genus of small passerine birds in the family Troglodytidae.

Taxonomy

The genus Cistothorus was circumscribed by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1850.^[1] The type species is the sedge wren (Cistothorus stellaris).

Species

The genus contains five species:^[2]

• Sedge wren, short-billed marsh wren, Cistothorus stellaris – northern Mexico, United States and southern Canada
• Mérida wren, Cistothorus meridae – Venezuelan Andes
• Apolinar's wren, Cistothorus apolinari – Colombian Andes
• Grass wren, Cistothorus platensis – central and South America
• Marsh wren, long-billed marsh wren, Cistothorus palustris – Mexico, United States and southern Canada

The sedge wren and the grass wren were formerly treated as conspecific. They were split based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Book: Cabanis, Jean . Jean Cabanis . 1850 . Museum Heineanum : Verzeichniss der ornithologischen Sammlung des Oberamtmann Ferdinand Heine, auf Gut St. Burchard vor Halberstadt . 1 . German . Halberstadt . In Commission bei R. Frantz . 77 .
2. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . 2017 . Dapple-throats, sugarbirds, fairy-bluebirds, kinglets, hyliotas, wrens & gnatcatchers . World Bird List Version 7.3 . International Ornithologists' Union . 29 December 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180418211310/http://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/sugarbirds/ . 18 April 2018 . dead .
3. Robbins . Mark B. . Nyári . Árpád S. . 2014 . Canada to Tierra del Fuego: species limits and historical biogeography of the Sedge Wren (Cistothorus platensis) . Wilson Journal of Ornithology . 126 . 4 . 649–662 . 10.1676/13-162.1 . 86234438 .