Golden-crowned Warbler (Basileuterus culicivorus)

Golden-crowned warbler
Conservation status
	; Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Parulidae
Genus:	Basileuterus
Species:	B. culicivorus
Binomial name
	Basileuterus culicivorus; (Deppe, 1830)
	Range

The golden-crowned warbler (Basileuterus culicivorus) is a small insectivorous bird in the New World warbler family Parulidae. It has a large geographic range that extends from northeastern Mexico south to northern Argentina. The white-bellied warbler was formerly treated as a separate species but is now considered to be conspecific with the golden-crowned warbler.

Taxonomy

The golden-crowned warbler was formally described in 1830 under the binomial name Sylvia culicivora by the German accountant Wilhelm Deppe in a price list of specimens that had been collected in Mexico by Wilhelm's brother Ferdinand Deppe.^[2]^[3] The specific epithet combines the Latin culex, culicis meaning "midge" and -vorus meaning "eating".^[4] The golden-crowned warbler is now one of 12 species placed in the genus Basileuterus that was introduced in 1848 by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis.^[5] The genus name is from Ancient Greek βασιλευτερος/basileuteros meaning "more kingly".^[6]

Fourteen subspecies are recognised:^[5]

B. c. flavescens Ridgway, 1902 – central west Mexico
B. c. brasierii (Giraud Jr, 1841) – northeast, central east Mexico
B. c. culicivorus (Deppe, 1830) – central south Mexico to north Costa Rica
B. c. godmani Berlepsch, 1888 – central Costa Rica to west Panama
B. c. occultus Zimmer, JT, 1949 – west Colombia
B. c. austerus Zimmer, JT, 1949 – central Colombia
B. c. indignus Todd, 1916 – north Colombia
B. c. cabanisi Berlepsch, 1879 – northeast Colombia and northwest Venezuela
B. c. olivascens Chapman, 1893 – north, northeast Venezuela and Trinidad
B. c. segrex Zimmer, JT & Phelps, WH, 1949 – south Venezuela, west Guyana and north Brazil
B. c. auricapilla (Swainson, 1838) – central, east Brazil
B. c. azarae Zimmer, JT, 1949 – southeast, south Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and north Argentina
B. c. viridescens Todd, 1913 – east Bolivia
B. c. hypoleucus Bonaparte, 1850 – southwest Brazil and northeast Paraguay

The subspecies B. c. hypoleucus, with white underparts, was formerly considered to be a separate species, the white-bellied warbler.^[7] It is now treated as a conspecific with the golden-crowned warbler based partly on evidence from a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 which found that B. c. hypoleucus did not form a monophyletic clade within the complex.^[5]^[8]

Description

The golden-crowned warbler is 12.0–13.5 cm (4.7–5.3 in) in overall length. It has grey-green upperparts and bright yellow underparts. The head is grey with a black-bordered yellow crown stripe, a yellow or white supercilium and a black eyestripe. Sexes are similar, but the immature golden-crowned warbler is duller, browner and lacks the head pattern other than the eyestripe.^[9]

The subspecies fall into four groups. The Central American culicivorus group (known as the stripe-crowned warbler) is essentially as the nominate described above, the southwestern cabanisi group (known as Cabanis's warbler) has grey upperparts and a white supercilium, the aureocapillus group (known as the golden-crowned warbler) of the southeast, has a white supercilium and orange-rufous crown stripe, and the single subspecies in the hypoleucus group (known as the white-bellied warbler) with white, not yellow, underparts that occurs in south central Brazil.^[9]

Distribution and habitat

It breeds from Mexico and south through Central America to northeastern Argentina and Uruguay, and on Trinidad. It is mainly a species of lowland forests.^[9]

Behaviour

The golden-crowned warbler feeds on arthropods, especially insects and spiders. Their song is a high thin pit-seet-seet-seet-seet, and the call is a sharp tsip.^[10] It lays two to four rufous-spotted white eggs in a domed nest in a bank or under leaves on the forest floor. The eggs are incubated by the female for 10 to 12 days.^[9] Parent birds will feign injury to distract potential nest predators.^[10]

References

^ BirdLife International (2020). "Basileuterus culicivorus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020 e.T103801509A139147079. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T103801509A139147079.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
^ Deppe, Wilhelm (1863) [1830]. "Lichtensteins's Preis-Verzeichniss mexicanischer Vogel etc". Journal für Ornithologie (in German). 11 (1): 54–60. Bibcode:1863JOrni..11...54D. doi:10.1007/BF02005194. S2CID 10259870. A reprint of the original pricelist.
^ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 66.
^ Jobling, James A. "culicivora". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 11 September 2025.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "New World warblers, mitrospingid tanagers". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 13 September 2025.
^ Jobling, James A. "Basileuterus". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 13 September 2025.
^ Curson, Jon (1994). New World Warblers. London: Christopher Helm. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-7136-3932-2.
^ Vilaça, Sibelle Torres; Santos, Fabrício Rodrigues (2010). "Biogeographic history of the species complex Basileuterus culicivorus (Aves, Parulidae) in the Neotropics". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 57 (2): 585–597. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.07.010.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Phelps, J.; Contreras-González, A.M.; Rodríguez-Flores, C.I.; Soberanes-González, C.A.; Arizmendi, M.D.C.; Jaramillo, A. (2020). Schulenberg, T.S. (ed.). "Golden-crowned Warbler (Basileuterus culicivorus), version 1.0". Birds of the World. Ithaca, NY, USA: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 14 September 2025.
^ ^a ^b Curson, Jon (1994). New World Warblers. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 216–217. ISBN 978-0-7136-3932-2.

External links

Explore Species: Golden-crowned Warbler at eBird (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

[iucn_status_11_November_2021-1] BirdLife International (2020). "Basileuterus culicivorus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020 e.T103801509A139147079. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T103801509A139147079.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.

[2] Deppe, Wilhelm (1863) [1830]. "Lichtensteins's Preis-Verzeichniss mexicanischer Vogel etc". Journal für Ornithologie (in German). 11 (1): 54–60. Bibcode:1863JOrni..11...54D. doi:10.1007/BF02005194. S2CID 10259870. A reprint of the original pricelist.

[3] Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 66.

[4] Jobling, James A. "culicivora". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 11 September 2025.

[ioc-5] Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "New World warblers, mitrospingid tanagers". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 13 September 2025.

[6] Jobling, James A. "Basileuterus". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 13 September 2025.

[7] Curson, Jon (1994). New World Warblers. London: Christopher Helm. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-7136-3932-2.

[8] Vilaça, Sibelle Torres; Santos, Fabrício Rodrigues (2010). "Biogeographic history of the species complex Basileuterus culicivorus (Aves, Parulidae) in the Neotropics". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 57 (2): 585–597. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.07.010.

[bow-9] Phelps, J.; Contreras-González, A.M.; Rodríguez-Flores, C.I.; Soberanes-González, C.A.; Arizmendi, M.D.C.; Jaramillo, A. (2020). Schulenberg, T.S. (ed.). "Golden-crowned Warbler (Basileuterus culicivorus), version 1.0". Birds of the World. Ithaca, NY, USA: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 14 September 2025.

[curson-10] Curson, Jon (1994). New World Warblers. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 216–217. ISBN 978-0-7136-3932-2.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]