White-throated Spadebill (Platyrinchus mystaceus) [XC862989]
by id from Reserva FCAT, Ecuador (song)
White-throated Spadebill (Platyrinchus) [XC299011]
by Roney Souza from Monte Alegre, Tel\u00eamaco Borba, Paran\u00e1, Brazil (alarm call, call)
Subspecies
Relationships within genus unclear, pending completion of major genetic study. Has sometimes been considered conspecific with Stub-tailed Spadebill (Platyrinchus cancrominus), but the two behave as separate species in Costa Rica. Subspecies fall into two different types, the Central American-Andean "albogularis group" (including perijanus and zamorae) and the "nominate group" of lowlands (eastern from northern Venezuelan insularis and tepui subspecies and from northern Bolivia). Subspecies partridgei apparently intermediate between the two. Further work necessary in order to clarify taxonomic limits of these groups, as well as relationships within and between subspecies with dark lower mandible (former group) and those with pale lower mandible ("nominate group"). Specimen from northern Bolivia (Trinidad, in Beni) may belong to subspecies bifasciatus, thus extending latter's range far to west.
The following 14 subspecies are recognised:
neglectus (Todd, 1919) - Costa Rica, Panama, northern and central Colombia (R Truandó, Santa Marta region, Boyaca) and north-western Venezuela (western Táchira).
perijanus Phelps & Phelps Jr, 1954 - Sierra de Perijá, on Colombia-Venezuela border.
albogularis Sclater, PL, 1860 - Western Colombia (Pacific slope of western Andes, Cauca Valley, head of Magdalena Valley) and western Ecuador. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Western White-throated Spadebill (Platyrinchus albogularis).
zamorae (Chapman, 1924) - Eastern Ecuador southern along Andes to south-eastern Peru (south to western Madre de Dios).
partridgei Short, 1969 - Extreme south-eastern Peru (southern Puno) and western and central Bolivia (La Paz, Cochabamba, south-western Santa Cruz).
insularis Allen, JA, 1889 - Northern Venezuela (Falcón and Lara east to Sucre, and Orinoco Valley from north-western Bolívar east to Delta Amacuro), Trinidad and Tobago, and locally in western Guyana and French Guiana.
imatacae Zimmer, JT & Phelps, 1945 - Sierra de Imataca, in north-eastern Bolívar (eastern Venezuela).
ptaritepui Zimmer, JT & Phelps, 1946 - Sororopán-tepui, Ptari-tepui and Aprada-tepui, in south-eastern Bolívar (south-eastern Venezuela).
duidae Zimmer, JT, 1939 - Southern and south-eastern Venezuela (Cerros Yaví, Duida and Roraima) and extreme northern Brazil (northern R Branco).
ventralis Phelps & Phelps Jr, 1955 - Extreme southern Venezuela (Cerro de la Neblina) and adjacent north-western Brazil.
bifasciatus Allen, JA, 1889 - Southern Brazil (central Mato Grosso east to central Goiás), possibly also northern Bolivia (Beni).
mystaceus Vieillot, 1818 - South-eastern Brazil (southern Mato Grosso, central Paraná and western Santa Catarina south to Rio Grande do Sul), eastern Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina (Misiones, Corrientes).
cancromus Temminck, 1820 - Eastern Brazil (interior Maranhío east to Ceará and northern Bahia, south to eastern Paraná and eastern Santa Catarina).
niveigularis Pinto, 1954 - Coastal forests of north-eastern Brazil (Paraíba south to Alagoas).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet