Distribution information for Tiaris

[Ken Kinman]

John,
      T. olivacea goes north through Central America to eastern Mexico.   T.
canora in Cuba.  And T. bicolor covers the eastern Caribbean from the
Bahamas down into northern coastal South America.  Not sure about the other
species, but those three together encircle the Caribbean very nicely.
                         -----Ken
***************************************************
>From: "John R. Grehan" <jrg13 at PSU.EDU>
>Reply-To: "John R. Grehan" <jrg13 at PSU.EDU>
>To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
>Subject: Distribution information for Tiaris
>Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 17:21:18 -0500
>
>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
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