The timberline sparrow (''Spizella breweri taverneri'') is a
taxonomically controversial
American sparrow
New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns.
Although they share t ...
. Usually treated as a
subspecies of
Brewer's sparrow
Brewer's sparrow (''Spizella breweri'') is a small, slim species of American sparrow in the family Passerellidae. This bird was named after the ornithologist Thomas Mayo Brewer.
Description and systematics
Adults have grey-brown backs and sp ...
, it is considered a distinct
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
''Spizella taverneri'' by some authorities. While the timberline sparrow recognizably differs in some details, there is little
reproductive isolation
The mechanisms of reproductive isolation are a collection of evolutionary mechanisms, behaviors and physiological processes critical for speciation. They prevent members of different species from producing offspring, or ensure that any offsprin ...
between the
taxa
In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...
.
When it was still considered a species, it was listed as being of
least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. Th ...
by the
IUCN.
[E.g. Baillie ''et al.'' (2004).]
Footnotes
References
* (2004): ''2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. A Global Species Assessment.'' IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7804717
Spizella
Birds described in 1925
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot