Nendo whistler

The Nendo whistler is a passerine bird in the family Pachycephalidae. It is endemic to Nendö, as well as the Reef and Duff islands in the Santa Cruz Islands of the western Pacific Ocean. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the Vanikoro whistler. Before the split the combined species were known by the English name "Temotu whistler".

Taxonomy

The Nendo whistler was formally described in 1932 by the American ornithologist Ernst Mayr based on specimens collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition to the island of Nendö in the Santa Cruz Islands. These islands form part of the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Mayr considered his specimens to be subspecies of what is now the Australian golden whistler and coined the trinomial name Pachycephala pectoralis ornata. The specific epithet ornata is Latin meaning "ornate", "adorned", "decorated", "splendid" or "embellished". The Nendo whistler was previously considered to be a subspecies of the Vanikoro whistler but is now classified as a separate species based on DNA sequence analysis and differences in plumage. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.