Teretistridae: Cuban Warblers
Oriente Warbler. © Ian Merrill
The Cuban warblers are a newly recognized, two-member family of songbirds endemic to Cuba and its satellites. They generally resemble wood warblers in appearance and behavior, but have long lead-gray bills that are noticeably larger and curiously keel-shaped: vertically thick but laterally compressed, and curved near the tip.
The teretistrids were formerly classified as atypical wood warblers (i.e., within the Parulidae), but have been reclassified as a separate family based on genetic studies showing that they diverged from their nearest relatives—the icterids, wood warblers, Wrenthrush, and Yellow-breasted Chat—about twelve million years ago.
Yellow-headed Warbler. © Peter Howlett
The Teretistridae consists of two very similar species, both entirely gray and yellow, with strikingly bright, lemon-yellow eyerings. The two species are east-west counterparts that occupy similar habitats in different regions of Cuba. However, they overlap locally and a few cases of hybridization have been documented.
References
Barker, F.K., K.J. Burns, J. Klicka, S.M. Lanyon, and I.J. Lovette. 2013. Going to extremes: contrasting rates of diversification in a recent radiation of New World passerine birds. Systematic Biology 62:298-320.
Barker, F.K., K.J. Burns, J. Klicka, S.M. Lanyon, and I.J. Lovette. 2015. New insights into New World biogeography: An integrated view from the phylogeny of blackbirds, cardinals, sparrows, tanagers, warblers, and allies. Auk 132:333-348.
Roberson, D. 2017. Bird Families of the World: Cuban Warblers: Teretistridae, http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/Cuban_warblers.html. (Posted June 14, 2017. Accessed June 10, 2019.)