Mangrove Vireo (Vireo pallens) [XC264269]
by Ross Gallardy from Las Coloradas Rd, Yucatan, Honduras (alarm call, call)
Mangrove Vireo (Vireo pallens) [XC422156]
by Oscar Campbell from La Ensenada Lodge, Puntarenas, Honduras (song)
Subspecies
This genus and Hylophilus sometimes placed together in a subfamily Vireoninae. Closely related to eight other scrub-dwelling vireos, namely White-eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus), Thick-billed Vireo (Vireo crassirostris), Cozumel Vireo (Vireo bairdi), San Andres Vireo (Vireo caribaeus), Jamaican Vireo (Vireo modestus), Cuban Vireo (Vireo gundlachii), Puerto Rican Vireo (Vireo latimeri) and Flat-billed Vireo (Vireo nanus). Sometimes treated as subspecies of White-eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus). It has been suggested that two full species are involved, one consisting of Pacific-coast subspecies paluster, ochraceus, nominate and nicoyensis (which are monomorphic), and the other of Caribbean subspecies salvini, semiflavus, wetmorei, angulensis, browningi and approximans (which exhibit distinct grey and yellow plumage morphs, and which possibly have distinct vocalizations). Subspecies approximans has been included by some authors in Thick-billed Vireo (Vireo crassirostris). It is, however, morphologically and vocally distinctive, and may represent a further separate species. More study is required.
Proposed subspecies olsoni (described from Turneffe Is, off Belize) treated as a synonym of salvini.
The following 10 subspecies are recognised:
paluster Moore, RT, 1938 - Western Mexico (south-western Sonora southern on coast to Nayarit).
ochraceus Salvin, 1863 - Southern Mexico (southern Oaxaca) southern along coast to Guatemala and western El Salvador (Puerto El Triunfo).
pallens Salvin, 1863 - Southern Honduras, western Nicaragua and north-western Costa Rica.
nicoyensis Parkes, 1990 - Golfo de Nicoya, in western Costa Rica.
salvini van Rossem, 1934 - South-eastern Mexico (Yucatán Peninsula) and northern Belize (including Turneffe Is).
semiflavus Salvin, 1863 - Caribbean lowlands of northern Guatemala, southern Belize, eastern Honduras and eastern Nicaragua (Bluefields).
wetmorei Phillips, AR, 1991 - El Cayo, in Bahía de Amatique (north of Puerto Barrios), off extreme eastern Guatemala.
angulensis Parkes, 1990 - Bay Is (off northern Honduras).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet