Phenotypic variation and vocal divergence reveals a species complex in White-eared Ground-sparrows (Cabanis) (Aves: Passerellidae)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The taxonomy of the genus Melozone has recently been analyzed from genus to subspecies level, leading to a significant revision of our understanding of this group of birds. Previous studies quantified differences in phenotypic traits, behavior, and genotypes, to provide a better understanding of the underappreciated diversity within Melozone and the relationship between species within this genus. Yet the relationship between the subspecies of White-eared Ground-sparrows, Melozone leucotis, has not received thorough taxonomic scrutiny. In this study, we evaluate the taxonomic status of the three recognized subspecies of M. leucotis using multiple morphometric characteristics, plumage color features, and vocalizations. We measured plumage patterns and reflectance from museum specimens, morphometric features from museum specimens and live birds, and vocal characteristics from sound recordings. We observed substantial variation between subspecies in plumage, morphometry, and voice, especially between northern and southern birds. The phenotypic and vocal differences exhibited by M. l. occipitalis (from Chiapas, Mexico; Guatemala; and El Salvador) suggest that its taxonomic relationship with the M. l. leucotis and M. l. nigrior complex (from Costa Rica and Nicaragua, respectively) needs to be reevaluated, because these two groups are highly diagnosable from one another. Additionally, M. l. occipitalis is geographically isolated from the other two subspecies, reducing the probability of contact by natural causes in the near future. Based on the clear differences in voice, plumage, and morphometric features reported here, we propose that M. l. occipitalis be recognized as a distinct species, M. occipitalis (Salvin's Ground-sparrow), diagnosed on the basis of its longer tail, longer bill, duller plumage, and songs with a lower frequency of maximum amplitude.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".