Harporhynchus guttatus Ridgway (1885)

“Specific characters.—Similar to H. longirostris (Lafr.) [Long-billed Thrasher], but smaller, darker in color, the bill wholly deep black, and all the markings more sharply defined. Type, No. 102,454, male, U.S. Nat. Mus.; Cozumel, Jan. 23 [1885]”

Reference: Ridgway, R. 1885. Description of some new bird species from Cozumel Island, Yucatan. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 3:2-24. (Presented in 1885; volume published in 1886)

The Cozumel Thrasher has in the past been considered a subspecies of the Long-billed Thrasher by some authorities (Paynter 1955, Mayr and Short 1970). However, the Cozumel Thrasher is currently listed as a distinct species in the AOU Checklist, 7th edition (1998); this assessment is based on Zink et al. (1999), who found T. guttatum to be about 5% genetically different from both T. longirostre and T. rufum.

Specimens from the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Photographed by R. L. Curry, 2002.

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El cuitlacoche de cozumel: the endemic thrasher of Cozumel Island
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