Chestnut-bellied seed finch

{{speciesbox

| name = Chestnut-bellied seed finch

| image = Oryzoborus angolensis.jpg

| image_caption = male File:Oryzoborus angolensis - Chestnut-bellied Seed Finch XC242911.mp3

| image2 = Chestnut-bellied Seed-Finch female RWD.jpg

| image2_caption = female

| status = LC

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Sporophila angolensis |volume=2018 |page=e.T22723542A132167022 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22723542A132167022.en |access-date=12 November 2021}}

| genus = Sporophila

| species = angolensis

| authority = (Linnaeus, 1766)

| synonyms = *Loxia angolensis (protonym)

Oryzoborus angolensis

| range_map = Sporophila angolensis map.svg

}}

The chestnut-bellied seed finch (Sporophila angolensis) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, but was until recently placed in Emberizidae.

It is found widely in shrubby and grassy areas in tropical and subtropical South America. It has been replaced west of the Andes (and in Central America) by the closely related thick-billed seed finch (S. funerea). The two have often been considered conspecific as the lesser seed-finch, using the older scientific name Oryzoborus angolensis.

Taxonomy

The chestnut-bellied seed finch was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia angolensis.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1766 | title=Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | edition=12th | volume=1, Part 1 | publisher=Laurentii Salvii | place=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=Latin | page=303 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42946499 }} Linnaeus based his description on "The Black Gros-Beak" that had been described and illustrated in 1764 by the English naturalist George Edwards.{{ cite book | last=Edwards | first=George | author-link=George Edwards (naturalist) | year=1758–1764 | title=Gleanings of Natural History, exhibiting figures of quadrupeds, birds, insects, plants &c... | language=English, French | volume=Part 3 | place=London | publisher=Printed for the author, at the College of Physicians | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/56896248 | page=296, Plate 352 }} Edwards's illustration was from a live bird belonging to the barrister Philip Carteret Webb. Edwards mistakenly believed that the bird had come from Angola. The chestnut-bellied seed finch does not occur there and the type locality is now designated as eastern Brazil.{{ cite book | editor-last=Paynter | editor-first=Raymond A. Jr | year=1970 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=13 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=150 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14483385 }}

The chestnut-bellied seed finch and the thick-billed seed finch were formerly considered conspecific and together had the English name "lesser seed-finch".{{ cite book | editor-last=Paynter | editor-first=Raymond A. Jr | year=1970 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=13 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | pages=149–150 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14483384 }}{{ cite book | author=Committee on Classification and Nomenclature| year=1983 | title=Check-list of North American Birds | edition=6th | location=Washington, DC | publisher=American Ornithologist's Union | isbn=0-943610-32-X | page=689 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34735904 }} Both species were formerly placed in the genus Oryzoborus but molecular phylogenetic studies found that Oryzoborus was embedded in Sporophila.{{Cite journal | last1=Mason | first1=Nicholas A. | last2=Burns | first2=Kevin J. | year=2013 | title=Molecular phylogenetics of the Neotropical seedeaters and seed-finches (Sporophila, Oryzoborus, Dolospingus) | journal=Ornitologia Neotropical | volume=24 | pages=139–155 | url=https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/ON%2024%282%29%20139-155%20NEW.pdf }}{{cite journal| last1=Burns | first1=K.J. | last2=Shultz | first2=A.J. | last3=Title | first3=P.O. | last4=Mason | first4=N.A. | last5=Barker | first5=F.K. | last6=Klicka | first6=J. | last7=Lanyon | first7=S.M. | last8=Lovette | first8=I.J. | year=2014 | title=Phylogenetics and diversification of tanagers (Passeriformes: Thraupidae), the largest radiation of Neotropical songbirds | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution| volume=75| pages=41–77 | doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2014.02.006 | pmid=24583021 | bibcode=2014MolPE..75...41B | url=https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3613&context=biosci_pubs | url-access=subscription }} The chestnut-bellied seed finch was therefore moved to Sporophila, a genus that had been introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1844.{{ cite journal | last=Cabanis | first=Jean | author-link=Jean Cabanis | year=1844 | title=Avium conspectus quae in Republica Peruana reperiuntur et pleraeqiio observatae vel collectae sunt in itinere a Dr. J.J. de Tschudi | language=Latin | journal=Archiv für Naturgeschichte | volume=10 | pages=262–317 [291] | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13704194 }}{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=July 2020 | title=Tanagers and allies | work=IOC World Bird List Version 10.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/tanagers/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=26 November 2020 }}

Two subspecies are recognised:

S. a. torrida (Scopoli, 1769) – Trinidad, Tobago, east Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas and north, west Amazonia
S. a. angolensis (Linnaeus, 1766) – north Bolivia to east Brazil, Paraguay and northeast Argentina

Chestnut-bellied seed finch

Taxonomy

References

Further reading