Subspecies names following Swarth (1931):
- Galápagos Mockingbird Nesomimus parvulus parvulus
- Most central islands: Santa Cruz (Indefatigable), Seymour Norte (North Seymour), Isabela (Albemarle), and Fernandina (Narborough). Occasional on Isla Daphne Major (probably strays from Santa Cruz). Extirpated from Baltra during World War II.
- Pinta Mockingbird Nesomimus parvulus personatus
- Endemic to Isla Pinta (Abingdon)
- Genovesa Mockingbird Nesomimus parvulus bauri
- Endemic to Isla Genovesa (Tower)
More about the biology of this subspecies
- Santa Fe Mockingbird Nesomimus parvulus barringtoni
- Endemic to Isla Santa Fe (Barrington)
- James Mockingbird Nesomimus parvulus bindloei
- Islas Marchena (Bindloe), Santiago (James), and Rábida (Jervis)
- Wolf Mockingbird Nesomimus parvulus wenmani
- Endemic to Isla Wolf (Wenman)
- Darwin Mockingbird Nesomimus parvulus hulli
- Endemic to Isla Darwin (Culpepper)
Note: no evidence of mockingbirds has ever been obtained from Isla Pinzón (Duncan). This island lies within the overall range of N. parvulus parvulus, so that subspecies would be expected there. One hypothesis for the absence of mockingbirds from Pinzón assumes that black rats (Rattus rattus), which colonized the island during the late 1700s or early 1800s with the arrival of whalers intent on taking tortoises. (Rats may have arrived even early, in the days of the buccaneers.) According to this hypothesis, mockingbirds were driven to extinction by rats before any naturalists visited Pinzón.
The hypothesis could be supported if fossil or subfossil mockingbird bones could be found on the island, but no such bones have been found to date, in part because few lava tubes of the sort that have produced many fossils on other islands (Floreana, Santa Cruz) have been located on Pinzón.
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