FIRST NORTH AMERICAN RECORD OF WHITE-CRESTED ELAENIA AT SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, TEXAS 
Figure 9. This spectrogram compares the call notes of the White-crested Elaenia at South Padre Island (recorded 10 February 2008 
[left] by Martin Reid) to call notes of a cMens/s White-crested Elaenia recorded in Bolivia. The recording device used to capture the 
Texas audio could not record above 5 kHi. Spectrogram by Chris Benesh. 
Figure 10. In these nine Elaenia specimens, the five chilensis (left) are clearly larger and grayer than the four parvirostris (right), 
which appear more greenish above. The Zoological Museum of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (MZUSP) graciously granted permis- 
sion to photograph these specimens. Photograph by Kevin Zimmer. 
tral migrant and a possible candidate for oc- 
currence in North America; however, it has a 
much smaller crest that typically is not visible 
when not deliberately raised, creating a 
round-headed look with the white center not 
usually visible. Moreover, parvirostris lacks a 
“pheeo” call similar to that of chilensis. Illus- 
trations in Schulenberg et al. (2007) and 
Ridgely and Greenfield (2001), plus compar- 
ative photographs of specimens from Brazil 
(from the Zoological Museum of the Univer- 
sity of Sao Paulo [hereafter MZUSP], pro- 
vided by Kevin Zimmer; Figure 10) indicate 
that parvirostris is smaller than chilensis, is a 
greener olive above, with a more contrasting 
pale throat, slightly shorter wings, and longer 
tail. In addition, this species often shows a 
third white wing bar on the tips of the lesser 
coverts (when fresh). 
For White-crested Elaenia, there are six 
subspecies arranged into three groups. The 
albiceps group (including griseigularis, di- 
versa, and urubambae) occurs in the Andes 
from southernmost Colombia through 
Ecuador and Peru down to central Bolivia and 
is considered to be non-migratory. These 
forms have a less-conspicuous eye ring than 
chilensis, as well as narrower, duller wing bars 
and a different call note; they also are gener- 
ally drabber, with more brownish tones to the 
upperparts. Recent molecular evidence sug- 
gests that White-crested Elaenias of the albi- 
ceps group are unrelated to chilensis, and the 
two should be separated as different species 
Figure 1 1 . The migratory subspecies chilensis of White-crested 
Elaenia has a large range that Is not fully known. It breeds 
across a large portion of the Southern Cone of South America ex- 
cept for the Patagonian Steppe (red) and apparently winters 
mostly In the Andes north to northern Peru (blue), but scattered 
records from Amazonia, stretching at least from eastern Peru to 
southern and eastern Brazil (hatched area), suggest that its 
nonbreeding range may be far more extensive. There are several 
extralimital records of this subspecies (blue dots): from the Falk- 
lands (two records), Colombia (three records), and at sea in the 
Drake Passage (one record). Map by Mark Lockwood. 
(Rheindt et al. 2009); the tnodesta group was 
not sampled in that work. The subspecies 
modesta is non-migratory and found along the 
coastal areas of northern Chile and Peru, and 
while the voice is fairly similar to chilensis, it 
is strikingly different in appearance, having 
virtually no wing bars or tertial edgings, and 
no kinglet-like pattern on the secondaries 
(Jaramillo et al. 2003; Reid, per. obs.). 
The subspecies chilensis is the brightest of 
the group, having the strongest eye ring, 
thick, even whitish wing bars, and a distinc- 
tive soft “fio” call that is often repeated for 
long periods (its local name in Chile is “Fio- 
fio”). It is an abundant bird in the southern 
part of its range and is strongly migratory. The 
breeding season runs from September to 
March (McGehee and Eitniear 2006), and it is 
likely that the latest-breeding birds are those 
farthest south or at high elevations (as cold 
conditions linger longest there). Thus a likely 
scenario is that part of the population in the 
northern and central part of the breeding 
range may be finished with breeding by the 
beginning of February, and some of them 
could be undertaking a long migratory flight 
northward in early February (both adults and 
recently fledged birds). Other strong austral 
migrants have been found in North America 
in February, such as Dark-billed Cuckoo 
(Coccyzus melacoryplms) in southern Texas 
and occasional Fork-tailed Flycatchers 
(Tyrannus savana). An alternative scenario 
VOLUME 63 (2009) 
NUMBER 1 
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