Distribution information for Tiaris

[John R. Grehan]

If there are any bird people on the list who may be able to
assist me to clarify the distribution of the genus Tiaris (grassquits)
I would be most grateful.

In the paper "On the origin of Darwin's finches" (Molecular Biology and
Evolution
18(3): 299-311, 2001) the authors refer to the biogeography of most of the
extant Tiaris species being centered on the Caribbean islands. They cite
Ridgely and Tudor (1989) as the source, but their book only refers to the
four species found on the South American mainland T. fuliginosa, T. bicolor,
T. obscura, T. olivacea).

Looking up other checklists I find Sibly and Monroe (1990) reference to
only three
species in the Caribbean, two of which are also in South America (only T.
canora
endemic to the Caribbean). Brown's (1980) book "A complete checklist of the
birds of the world" divides T. bicolor into eight subspecies that would
increase
the taxonomic diversity of Caribbean representation if they were ascribed
species rank but this does not appear to be the case in later publications.

Any enlightenment on the current status of the taxonomy and also any
publications illustrating the distributions of Tiaris in the Caribbean
would be
most helpful.

John Grehan