| Rufous-bellied Saltator | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Thraupidae or Cardinalidae |
| Genus: | Saltator, but see text |
| Species: | "S." rufiventris |
| Binomial name | |
| "Saltator" rufiventris D'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837 |
|
The Rufous-bellied Saltator ("Saltator" rufiventris) is a species of songbird found in a few areas in the eastern Andes of southern Bolivia and extreme northern Argentina. Its habitat is open land, including cultivated land, that has patches of scrub, alder trees, or Polylepis trees. It is threatened by habitat loss.[1]
It was long placed in the genus Saltator, which is now often classified in the cardinal family though it may belong with the tanagers. However, a 2007 DNA study found that the Rufous-bellied Saltator was closer to the Chestnut-bellied Mountain-Tanager and the Buff-breasted Mountain-Tanager than to the true saltators.[2] Because of this result and similarities in habitat and plumage, the American Ornithologists' Union's South American Classification Committee recently moved this species' listing to the tanager family next to those two mountain-tanagers. In this classification, either the present species needs a genus name, or the genus Dubusia (Buff-breasted Mountain-Tanager) needs to be expanded to include it and the Chestnut-bellied Mountain-Tanager. However, nobody had proposed doing either as of December 2010, and the Rufous-bellied Saltator appears on the committee's list with "Saltator" in quotation marks.[3][4]