Adelaide’s Warbler, a Puerto Rican endemic
By Charlie • May 5, 2009 • 6 comments
When Jon Curson et al published their beautiful “New World Warblers” (Helm 1994) fifteen years ago they followed an accepted taxonomy that described Adelaide’s Warbler Dendroica adelaidae (or Reinita Mariposera as it’s called in Spanish) as a West Indies endemic superspecies containing three “yellow-throated” warblers found in isolated populations: on Puerto Rico D. a. adelaidae, Barbuda D. a. subita (210miles/338km from Puerto Rico), and St. Lucia D. a. delicata (350miles/563km from PR).
They noted at the same time though that the species “had a curious distribution” with different races “occurring on several widely scattered islands but with none on the islands in between”, that “most other W. Indian endemics are found either on just one island or on a group of adjacent ones”, and that while D. a. adelaidae and D. a. subita were of a similar size D. a. delicata averaged larger “in all measurements”.
Clearly Curson and his colleagues weren’t convinced that they were dealing with a single species, but a related group of similar-looking birds that were in fact three different resident species - and they were right. In 2000 the American Ornithologist’s Union (AOU) ’split’ D. a. adelaidae into three monotyoic taxa under the names Adelaide’s Warbler D. adelaidae (endemic to Puerto Rico and Vieques), Barbuda Warbler D. subita (endemic to Antigua and Barbuda), and St Lucia Warbler D. delicata (endemic to St. Lucia).
The AOU took their decision after the publication of a remarkably detailed paper published in the October 1998 issue of “The Auk” - ‘Evolutionary differentiation in three endemic West Indian Warblers’, by Lovette, Irby J Bermingham, Eldredge Seutin, Gilles Ricklefs, Robert E. (online here).
This paper clearly demonstrated that all three taxa were separate, saying, for example, that:
“The 2.2 to 4.7% mitochondrial divergences among Adelaide’s Warbler populations equals or exceeds those between many pairs of closely related bird species”…
“the high degree of differentiation among Adelaide’s Warbler populations provides strong evidence that they have been isolated for a long time”…
“the split that isolated the Puerto Rican Adelaide’s Warbler lineage probably occurred in the late Pliocene (ca. 1.8 to 2.4 million years ago), whereas the more recent split between the Barbudan and St. Lucian lineages occurred in the mid-Pleistocene (ca. 1.1 to 1.3 million years ago)”…
“The genetic distinctiveness of the three populations also suggests that each should be considered an evolutionarily significant unit for purposes of conservation.”
“If the three Adelaide’s Warbler populations are accorded species status, the Puerto Rican population should remain Dendroica adelaidae Baird 1865, the Barbudan population should be referred to Dendroica subita Riley 1905, and the St. Lucian population to Dendroica delicata Sclater 1871.”
Adelaide’s Warbler/Reinita Mariposera Dendroica adelaidae, Puerto Rico.
This photo and the one above © Alberto López-Torres (see more of Alberto’s photos at puertoricanwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/ and www.flickr.com)
A second paper by Cynthia Staicer (’Vocal differences among Caribbean endemic Adelaide’s, Barbuda and St. Lucia Warblers’. CYNTHIA A. STAICER, Dept. Biol., Dalhousie Univ., Halifax, NS.) confirmed these findings by comparing the calls of the three taxa. An abstract concludes that:
“Overall, vocal differences are consistent with genetic and morphological data, supporting species distinctiveness.
Similarities in vocal behavior support the notion that these species are each others’ closest relatives.”
Clearly, then, Adelaide’s Warbler is a full species (with a seemingly rather incongruous name - the species was named by Robert Swift, who collected the type specimen, after his daughter and not for any link with southern Australia), and endemic to the Puerto Rican archipelago. (North American birders (and well-travelled birders from anywhere else I guess) will recognise the similarity with other dendroica, particularly with the mainly Mexican/Central American Grace’s Warbler D. graciae, and it has been suggested that the Parulidae originated in northern Central America and spread out into the West Indies etc during the Pliocene.)
Adelaide’s Warbler/Reinita Mariposera Dendroica adelaidae, Puerto Rico.
Photos © Vanessa Ortiz
Adelaide’s Warbler/Reinita Mariposera Dendroica adelaidae, Puerto Rico.
Photos © Gabriel Lugo
So where can birders find one of these beautiful little warblers for themselves? Almost anywhere in suitable habitat it seems! Classified as Least Concern in the latest IUCN Red Data list Adelaide’s Warbler seems to be well-spread across Puerto Rico, though it does occur in only a few protected areas. According to the superb “Important Bird Areas in the Caribbean” (BirdLife International 2008), the species occurs in 14 of the 20 identified IBAs (see image below), and Mark Oberle in his excellent “Puerto Rico’s Birds in Photographs” says that the habitat Adelaide’s Warbler is found in includes “dry, lowland forests and some moist forests,with tangles of vines and thickets, especially in the southwest and northern limestone hills” and that typical locations include Guanica State Forest (part of the Karso del Sur IBA) in the south, Vega State Forest in the north, and on the trails near the visitor centre at Cabo Rojo National Widlife Refuge in the southwest.
IBA sites where Adelaide’s Warbler has occurred
Alan Mowbray (Writer-Editor Interpretive/CE media, USDA Forest Service, El Yunque National Forest) kindly mailed me in November 2009 with this additional information (and note of caution):
Re: D. adelaidae, (Adelaides Warbler) individuals of this species have occasionally been spotted in the East Fork, Palo Hueco and South Fork areas of the Luquillo Experimental Forest (El Yunque National Forest) in northeastern Puerto Rico, near the Amazona vittata (Puerto Rican Parrot) nesting grounds.
Unfortunately for birders, these areas are strictly “off-limits”– the highly endangered Puerto Rican Parrot’s nesting areas are closely supervised by US FWS and USFS scientists, biologists and nest maintenance crews – there are currently only seven parrot mating pairs in the wild! – the nesting area is also located in a trail-less, virtually impassible and remote area of the forest (it takes our crews a full day of trudging through the jungle, and wading rivers to access the nesting area)…
FYI – no D. adelaidae pairs have been sighted, by our crews, only individual birds.
- Like to see what else we’ve posted for ‘Puerto Rico Month’? Just click http://10000birds.com/tag/puerto-rico-month
How would you and a partner/friend like to win a 5 day ‘Endemic Dash’ around Puerto Rico with Kevin Loughlin’s WildSide Nature Tours?
You would? Read on…
Kevin (whose photographs of Puerto Rican Woodpecker and Green-throated Carib grace this post) has been organising trips to the Caribbean for many years and is generously offering two places on an Endemic Dash, one of his popular short trips around Puerto Rico on which participants will be taken to see as many of the island’s endemics as possible.
The Tour starts in San Juan - so you’ll need to get there (flights are frequent and cheap from many major US cities) - but all guiding fees, accommodations, ground 
transportation, and meals from dinner on day of arrival through breakfast on day of departure are included!
That would normally cost two people around 2500USD - enter and win and it’ll cost you just your passport fees, airport taxes, alcoholic beverages, laundry, phone calls or anything else of a purely personal nature! Which - if you go easy on the celebratory beers, wear the same socks for a few days, and keep short the gloating phone calls to your jealous mates back home - really won’t amount to very much at all…
We’ll be posting more info about this fantastic competition during Puerto Rico Month - yes, okay, not posting the questions now is our way of making sure you come back to visit us, but why would you want to miss some truly exceptional photographs of Puerto Rico’s endemics and some of the most up-to-date info on Puerto Rico’s biodiversity on the net anyway?
Do you know what the Spanish name of the species means?
I know that mariposa is “butterfly”, so it is likely a very nice name, but my Spanish is too rudimentary to go any further. Well, I guess if no-one replies, I’ll have to fly to Puerto Rico and find out, right?
Hmm, I don’t know either - we should both go
I think that Reinita Mariposera means something to the effect of “little queen who flits around like a butterfly” — but someone with better Spanish can confirm.
?liczne zdj?cia i ciekawy opis , pozdrawiam.
(ed. note - Google translates this comment from Polish to English as “numerous pictures? body and an interesting description, pozdrawiam.”)
Its called “Reinita Mariposera” because Warblers are called “Reinitas” in Puerto Rico which means little queens. “Mariposera” because a great amount of their diet are butterflies and caterpillars, but they do eat other things. “Mariposera” in this case means butterfly hunter or predator. Like the worm eating warbler for example. Oh and the first two pictures were taken by me, no worries charlie ;-).
Alberto, my sincere and deepest apologies. It won’t happen again (I’ve relabelled my folders to make sure).