Phenotypic Variation in Mangrove Cuckoo (Coccyzus minor) across Its Geographic Range.

ABSTRACT: Mangrove Cuckoo (Coccyzus minor) exhibits substantial phenotypic variation across its geographic range, but the significance of this variation for taxonomy remains unresolved. Using measurements of bill size and ventral color recorded from 274 museum specimens, I found that variation in these traits was clinal. No named subspecies was reciprocally diagnosable from all others, and none was distinguishable from the nominate form, such that previously recognized subspecific distinctions are invalid. Greatest differences in phenotype occurred between populations in Florida, the Bahamas, and the Greater Antilles--characteristically small-billed--and those in the Lesser Antilles, which had larger bills. Phenotypically intermediate individuals on the geographically intermediate islands of Barbuda

SUBMITTER: Lloyd JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4805237 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature