The grey-crowned palm-tanager or grey-crowned tanager (''Phaenicophilus poliocephalus'') is a

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Phaenicophilidae Phaenicophilidae is a family of passerine birds. It consists of three genera and four species, all endemic to Hispaniola, which have been traditionally placed in the families Thraupidae (''Phaenicophilus'') and Parulidae (''Xenoligea'', ''Microl ...

, the Hispaniolan palm-tanagers. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

, in both the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

and

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 25, 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The grey-crowned palm-tanager shares its genus with the black-crowned palm-tanager (''P. palmarum''). They hybridize and have at times been considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

. The genus was long included in family

Thraupidae The tanagers (singular ) comprise the bird family (biology), family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has a Neotropical distribution and is the second-largest family of birds. It represents about 4% of all avian species and 12 ...

, the "true" tanagers, but it was moved in 2017.Townsend, J. M. (2020). Gray-crowned Palm-Tanager (''Phaenicophilus poliocephalus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gcptan1.01 retrieved October 9, 2022 The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology. It links basic and applied research and nurtures education and outreach activities. Specifically, the IOU organizes and funds global co ...

and

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

's ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. ...

'' assign three subspecies to the grey-crowned palm-tanager, the nominate ''P. p. poliocephalus'', ''P. p. coryi'', and ''P. p. tetraopes''.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip retrieved August 7, 2022 The

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 202 ...

includes ''tetraopes'' within the nominate. This article follows the three-subspecies model.

Description

The grey-crowned palm-tanager is about long and weighs about . The sexes are alike. The nominate subspecies has a deep gray crown and a black "mask" with white spots in front of, above, and below the eye. Its upperparts are yellow-green. Its throat is bright white and the rest of its underparts the same dark gray as the crown. Subspecies ''P. p. coryi'' is larger than the nominate and paler overall with a white streak down the center of the breast and belly. ''P. p. tetraopes'' is slightly paler than the nominate both top and bottom.

Distribution and habitat

The grey-crowned palm-tanager's nominate subspecies is found on the Tiburon Peninsula of southwestern Haiti and the small island of Grande Cayemite off its northern shore. In the Dominican Republic, it is rarely found in the north and south slopes of the Sierra de Baoruco, as well as on the southern part of Loma de Toro and

Hoyo de Pelempito Hoyo may refer to: *Mount Hoyo, Congo *Hōyo Strait & Hōyo Fortress, Japan *Hoyo de Manzanares. Spanish municipality *Hoyo Mulas, former name Buena Vista, Carolina, Puerto Rico *Hoyo AC Elan, former name Verspah Oita football club *José Azcona d ...

. The subspecies ''P. p. tetraopes'' is found only on

Île-à-Vache Île-à-Vache, ( French, , also expressed Île-à-Vaches, former Spanish name Isla Vaca; both translate to Cow Island; ) is a Caribbean island, one of Haiti's satellite islands. It lies in the Baie de Cayes about off the coast of the country's ...

off the Tiburon Peninsula's south coast. ''P. p. coryi'' is found only on Gonâve Island in the Gulf of Gonâve north of the peninsula. The species inhabits every available forest type from dry to wet and open to dense. It also occurs tree plantations and in rural and urban gardens and parks. It is most easily viewed on the

Massif de la Hotte The Massif de la Hotte () is a mountain range in southwestern Haiti, on the Tiburon Peninsula, Haiti, Tiburon Peninsula west of the Petit-Goâve-Jacmel fault. About 2.5 million years ago, Massif de la Hotte was separated from the Massif de la Sel ...

towards the western end of the Tiburon Peninsula. In elevation it ranges from sea level to .

Behavior

Movement

The grey-crowned palm-tanager is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The grey-crowned palm-tanager forages in pairs or family groups from the forest mid-level to the canopy, and also sometimes joins

mixed-species foraging flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock (birds), flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while fora ...

s. Its major dietary component is small

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s with a lesser contribution from fruit. It forages for arthropods mostly by gleaning from foliage, both living and dead.

Breeding

The grey-crowned palm-tanager's breeding season is from May to July. It builds a cup nest of twigs up to about above ground. The clutch size is two to four eggs. After young fledge, the family stays together for several months. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.

Vocalization

As of late 2022 xeno-canto had no recordings of grey-crowned palm-tanager vocalizations and the

Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuar ...

's Macaulay Library had very few. It has "an extended melodic song" and a "''peee-u''" call.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the grey-crowned palm-tanager as Near Threatened. It has a limited range and an unknown population size that is believed to be decreasing. Deforestation in the Dominican Republic and especially Haiti has been severe and is continuing. However, the palm-tanager is common in areas of remaining habitat. "The small amount of forest left on Hispaniola is under constant pressure ut the species'generalist habits likely buffer it to some extent from the effects of deforestation".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3142836 Phaenicophilus Birds described in 1851 Endemic birds of Hispaniola Endemic birds of the Caribbean Birds of Haiti Birds of the Dominican Republic palm-tanager, grey-crowned Taxonomy articles created by Polbot