American Bushtit (Psaltriparus) [XC545916]
by Thomas Magarian from Snake Creek, Great Basin N.P., Nevada, United States (call)
American Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) [XC404311]
by Richard E. Webster from Horsetooth Mountain, Larimer County, Colorado, United States (song)
Subspecies
Geographical variation complex. Subspecies divisible into three groups, "nominate group" (including also saturatus, melanurus, californicus and grindae) of Pacific coastal regions, "plumbeus group" (with single subspecies) in interior, and "melanotis group" (including also dimorphicus, iulus and personatus) in south of range; groups meet in zones of secondary intergradation in southern USA (California, Texas) and northern Mexico, and were for many years treated as representing two or three separate species on basis largely of theory that "melanotis group" and "plumbeus group" overlap without interbreeding in south-western Texas, whereas these two groups display a near-continuous gradation of characters from north to south.
Proposed subspecies lloydi (described from Limpia Canyon, near Fort Davis, in Texas) represents a hybrid population between plumbeus and "melanotis group" found in USA-Mexico border region (extreme south-western New Mexico and adjacent north-eastern Sonora and north-western Chihuahua, and central and western Texas). Otherwise, in California, plumbeus intergrades with race californicus (in "nominate group") on eastern flank of Sierra Nevada and nominate subspecies intergrades with californicus in east. Birds of this species in north-eastern San Luis Potosí (central Mexico) of uncertain racial affinity, provisionally placed in iulus.
The following 10 subspecies are recognised:
saturatus Ridgway, 1903 - Extreme south-western Canada (SE
Vancouver I, south-western British Columbia) and extreme north-western USA (Puget Sound
lowlands of north-western Washington, including Whidbey I).
minimus (Townsend, 1837) - Western USA from SC
Washington (Yakima valley) and northern Oregon (R Columbia west of Cascades) S
along coast (west of Coast Range) to south-western California (southern at least to Santa
Barbara County).
melanurus Grinnell & Swarth, 1926 - Coastal
California from northern San Diego County (possibly from Los Angeles County)
south to north-western Mexico (north-western Baja California south to c. 30° north).
californicus Ridgway, 1884 - Interior southern Oregon (Jackson,
Klamath and Josephine Counties) south, east of Coast Range, to south-central California
(south to Kern County).
grindae Ridgway, 1883 - Mountains of Cape district of S
Baja California (southern from c. 24° north), in western Mexico.
plumbeus (Baird, SF, 1854) - West-central and southern USA from CE
Oregon (recorded also Yakima valley, in south-central Washington), south-western Idaho and
south-western Wyoming south to eastern California (eastern watershed of Sierra Nevada, also
Little San Bernardino Mts), southern Arizona, southern New Mexico, western Oklahoma and W
and central Texas, and northern Mexico (northern Sonora, north-western Chihuahua).
dimorphicus van Rossem & Hachisuka, 1938 - Mountains
of southern USA (extreme south-western New Mexico and western and central Texas) and north-central Mexico (E
Sonora east to north-western Coahuila, south to north-eastern Sinaloa and extreme northern Durango).
iulus Jouy, 1894 - Western and central Mexico from Durango
(possibly also southern Coahuila) south to southern Jalisco (Nevada de Colima), W
Michoacán and southern Querétaro, east to north-eastern San Luis Potosí
and western Tamaulipas.
personatus Bonaparte, 1850 - Mountains of central Mexico from
central Michoacán east to western Veracruz (including Cofre de Perote) and NE
Puebla.
.
melanotis (Hartlaub, 1844) - Southern Mexico in Guerrero
(Sierra Madre del Sur), Oaxaca and mountains of northern Chiapas (possibly
also western coastally to south-western Jalisco), also highlands of south-western Guatemala (eastern to
Chimaltenango).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet