Southern house wren
The southern house wren is a very small passerine bird in the wren family Troglodytidae. It is found from southern Mexico to southern Chile and southern Argentina. The name troglodytes means "hole dweller", and is a reference to the bird's tendency to disappear into crevices when hunting insects or to seek shelter. It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the northern house wren.
Taxonomy
The southern house wren was formally described in 1823 by the German naturalist Johann Andreas Naumann under the binomial name Troglodytes musculus. He specified the type locality as the state of Bahia in eastern Brazil. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "little mouse". The southern house wren was formerly considered to be part of the house wren complex that also included the northern house wren and six insular forms. The southern house wren was split from the complex based on the deep genetic divergence, differences in vocalizations and differences in morphology.Twenty-one subspecies are recognised:T. m. intermedius Cabanis, 1861 – south Mexico to central Costa RicaT. m. peninsularis Nelson, 1901 – Yucatán Peninsula T. m. inquietus Baird, SF, 1864 – southwest Costa Rica to east PanamaT. m. carychrous Wetmore, 1957 – Coiba T. m. pallidipes Phillips, AR, 1986 – Pearl Islands T. m. tobagensis Lawrence, 1888 – Tobago T. m. atopus Oberholser, 1904 – north ColombiaT. m. effutitus Wetmore, 1958 – Guajira Pen. and northwest VenezuelaT. m. striatulus – west, central Colombia and northwest VenezuelaT. m. columbae Stone, 1899 – east Colombia and west VenezuelaT. m. clarus Berlepsch & Hartert, EJO, 1902 – Venezuela, east Colombia and the Guianas to northeast Peru and north, west BrazilT. m. albicans Berlepsch & Taczanowski, 1884 – southwest Colombia and west EcuadorT. m. musculus Naumann, JF, 1823 – central, east Brazil to northeast Argentina and east ParaguayT. m. bonariae Hellmayr, 1919 – extreme southeast Brazil, Uruguay and northeast ArgentinaT. m. puna Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1896 – Peru and northwest BoliviaT. m. audax Tschudi, 1844 – west PeruT. m. carabayae Chapman & Griscom, 1924 – central, south PeruT. m. tecellatus d'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837 – southwest Peru and north ChileT. m. rex Berlepsch & Leverkühn, 1890 – central Bolivia to north Argentina and west ParaguayT. m. atacamensis Hellmayr, 1924 – north, central ChileT. m. chilensis Lesson, RP, 1830 – south Chile and south Argentina