Class Aves Family Thraupidae | Phylum Chordata Order Passeriformes | |
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Genus PseudosaltatorK.J. Burns, Unitt & N.A. Mason, 2016 | ||
The rufous-bellied mountain tanager or rufous-bellied saltator (Pseudosaltator rufiventris) is a species of songbird found in a few areas in the eastern Andes of southern Bolivia and extreme northern Argentina. It occurs mostly at altitudes from 3000 m to 4000 m. Its habitat is open land, including cultivated land, that has patches of scrub, alder trees, or Polylepis trees. It is threatened by habitat loss.
It was long placed in the genus Saltator, which is now often classified 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. Because of this result and similarities in habitat and plumage, in 2010 the American Ornithologists' Union's South American Classification Committee proposed moving this species to the tanager family following those two mountain tanagers. The proposal was accepted and in 2016 second proposal, to assign a new genus and English name, was also accepted. The Clements taxonomy included these changes. To these authorities the bird is now known as rufous-vented mountain tanager, Pseudosaltator rufiventris.
Description
The plumage is mostly blue-gray with orange underparts from the lower breast to the undertail coverts. There is a long white stripe over the eye. The bill is gray except that the base of the lower mandible is flesh-colored.