Spotted scrubwren


The spotted scrubwren is a bird species native to coastal southern Australia, from Adelaide westwards to Shark Bay in Western Australia. It was formerly considered conspecific with the white-browed scrubwren, and is known to hybridize with that species where their ranges overlap in the Adelaide area. Genetic analysis in a 2018 study of the family found that this taxon was more divergent from the white-browed scrubwren than the Tasmanian or Atherton scrubwrens and hence proposed its reclassification as a species. It was reclassified as a species in 2019.

Taxonomy

Sericornis maculatus includes the following subspecies:S. m. ashbyi - Mathews, 1912S. m. mellori - Mathews, 1912S. m. maculatus - Gould, 1847S. m. balstoni - Ogilvie-Grant, 1909