Warbling Vireo
The Warbling Vireo (Vireo gilvus), loved for its complex and beautiful song, has a very large breeding range across most of the United States, western Canada and parts of Mexico. Given this distribution, a number of subspecies have been described under the Warbling Vireo complex: a single eastern subspecies (V. g. gilvus) and four western subspecies, two migratory subspecies (V. g. swainsonii and V. g. brewsteri) and two non-migratory subspecies (V. g. victoriae and V. g. sympatricus).
Our very own Bird Genoscape Project lab manager, Amanda Carpenter, in collaboration with Garth Spellman from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and Theresa Burg from the University of Lethbridge, will construct a genoscape for the Warbling Vireo. For Amanda’s MSc thesis, she examined range-wide population genetic structure using mitochondrial DNA and 14 microsatellite loci. One unexpected finding was that the range boundaries for the two migratory western subspecies, swainsonii and brewsteri, did not coincide with the genetic groups found. Furthermore, an additional isolated genetic group was found in the Black Hills of South Dakota. You can read the full paper here. This ongoing work will build off of Amanda’s previous research, as the use of whole genome sequencing will allow us to be able to tease apart and characterize more of the fine-scale differences within the cryptic Warbling Vireo complex. We’re also interested to continue exploring more in depth the contact zones between genetic groups of the Warbling Vireo, which was the second aspect of Amanda’s thesis. That paper can be viewed here.
We are actively collecting and seeking samples from breeding and wintering locations across the Warbling Vireo’s range. Please contact Amanda Carpenter to learn more about how you can contribute to the project!