Sporophila

Sporophila is a genus of Neotropical birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. The genus now includes the six seed finches that were previously placed in the genus Oryzoborus.

Sporophila
Male variable seedeater
Female
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thraupidae
Genus: Sporophila
Cabanis, 1844
Type species
Pyrrhula falcirostris
Temminck, 1820

They are relatively small with stubby, conical bills adapted for feeding on seeds and alike. Most species are strongly sexually dimorphic, and while "typical" adult males often are distinctive, female and immatures of both sexes can be very difficult (in some species virtually impossible) to identify to exact species.[1] Females of at least some of these species have different ultraviolet colours, which can be seen by birds, but not humans.[2] Female-like (paedomorphic) males apparently also occur, at least in some species.[3]

Taxonomy and species list

The genus Spermophila was introduced by the English naturalist William John Swainson in 1827.[4] The type species was subsequently designated as Temminck's seedeater (Sporophila falcirostris) by George Robert Gray in 1841.[5] As the genus name Spermophila had been introduced by John Richardson in 1825 for a genus of mammals,[6] the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis coined the present name Sporophila as a replacement in 1844.[7][8] The name combines the Ancient Greek sporos meaning "seed" and philos meaning "-loving".[9]

The genus now includes the six seed finches that were previously placed in Oryzoborus as well as the thick-billed seed finch that was the only species in Dolospingus. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that these seven species were embedded in Sporophila.[10]

The genus contains 41 species:[11]

Described in 2016 and not yet generally recognised:

Possible extinct species:

  • Hooded seedeater, Sporophila melanops – possibly extinct (20th century?), a hybrid or a color morph of S. nigricollis

References
  1. Ridgely, R. S., & G. Tudor (1989). The Birds of South America. Vol. 1. Univ. Texas Press, Austin
  2. Benites, P., Eaton, M. D., Lijtmaer, D. A., Lougheed, S. C. & Tubaro, P. L. (2010). Analysis from avian visual perspective reveals plumage colour differences among females of capuchino seedeaters (Sporophila). J. Avian Biology. 41: 597–602.
  3. Areta, J. I. (2009). Paedomorphosis in Sporophila seedeaters. Bull. B.O.C. 2009 129(2): 98-103.
  4. Swainson, William John (1827). "On several groups and forms in ornithology, not hitherto defined". Zoological Journal. 3: 158–175, 343–363 [348].
  5. Gray (1841). A List of the Genera of Birds : with their Synonyma and an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus (2nd ed.). London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 63.
  6. Richardson, John (1825). Appendix to Captain Parry's journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a North West passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific performed in His Majesty's ships Fury and Hecla, in the years 1821-22-23. London: J. Murray. p. 313.
  7. Cabanis, Jean (1844). "Avium conspectus quae in Republica Peruana reperiuntur et pleraeqiio observatae vel collectae sunt in itinere a Dr. J.J. de Tschudi". Archiv für Naturgeschichte (in Latin). 10: 262–317 [291].
  8. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1970). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 13. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 133.
  9. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 363. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  10. Burns, K.J.; Shultz, A.J.; Title, P.O.; Mason, N.A.; Barker, F.K.; Klicka, J.; Lanyon, S.M.; Lovette, I.J. (2014). "Phylogenetics and diversification of tanagers (Passeriformes: Thraupidae), the largest radiation of Neotropical songbirds". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 75: 41–77. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2014.02.006.
  11. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "New World warblers, mitrospingid tanagers". IOC World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  • Lijtmaer, D. A., N. M. Sharpe, P. L. Tubaro & S. C. Lougheed. 2004. Molecular phylogenetics and diversification of the genus Sporophila (Aves: Passeriformes). Mol. Philo. Evol. 33:562-579.
  • Robbins, M. B., M. J. Braun, C. J. Huddleston, D. W. Finch, & C. M. Milensky (2005). First Guyana records, natural history, and systematics of the White-winged Seedeater (Dolospingus fringilloides). Ibis 147:334-341.

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