“Puerto Rican Bananaquit”

Frontiers of Taxonomy: Bunches of Bananaquits.  The forty-or-so subspecies of Bananaquit vary significantly in plumage and voice, and it seems clear that what has traditionally been recognized as a single species consists of several distinguishable forms, which likely represent at least two species, and perhaps as many as ten, but it is a complex puzzle.

Mitochondrial DNA analysis (Bellemain et al. 2008) indicates that the oldest splits are among three lineages: “Bahama” (bahamensis, plus the “Cozumel” subspecies, caboti); “Greater Antillean” (Jamaican flaveola, Hispaniolan bananivora, “Cayman” sharpei, and possibly also the similar “Providencia” form, which includes tricolor and oblita); and the rest (which can be subdivided into “Lesser Antillean” and “Continental” groups).

The same analysis indicates that oldest division among the “Lesser Antillean” lineages is “Puerto Rican” (portoricensis—and possibly also sanctithomae and newtoni of the Virgin Islands), which has the appearance of “Greater Antillean” with a “Lesser Antillean” voice.  The analysis also found a significant division between the “Dimorphic” form (aterrima of Grenada and atrata of St. Vincent) and the remaining “Lesser Antillean” subspecies (bartholemica plus martinicana, barbadensis, uropygialis, and bonairensis).  Finally, not sampled in the analysis, but apparently related to “Dimorphic”, is the Venezuelan “Blackish” form (laurae plus melanornis, lowii, and possibly also frailensis).