The chestnut-bellied seed finch (''Sporophila angolensis'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

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 South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. It has been replaced west of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

(and in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

) 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 Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

'' under the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Loxia angolensis''. Linnaeus based his description on "The Black Gros-Beak" that had been described and illustrated in 1764 by the English naturalist George Edwards. Edwards's illustration was from a live bird belonging to the barrister

Philip Carteret Webb Philip Carteret Webb (14 August 1702 – 22 June 1770) was an English barrister, involved with the 18th-century antiquarian movement. He became a member of the London Society of Antiquaries in 1747, and as its lawyer, was responsible for securin ...

. 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. The chestnut-bellied seed finch and the thick-billed seed finch were formerly considered conspecific and together had the English name "lesser seed-finch". Both species were formerly placed in the genus ''Oryzoborus'' but

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies found that ''Oryzoborus'' was embedded in ''

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''. They are relatively small with stubby, conical bills adapted fo ...

''. The chestnut-bellied seed finch was therefore moved to ''Sporophila'', a genus that had been introduced by the German ornithologist

Jean Cabanis Jean Louis Cabanis (8 March 1816 – 20 February 1906) was a German ornithologist. Cabanis was born in Berlin to an old Huguenot family who had moved from France. Little is known of his early life. He studied at the University of Berlin from 18 ...

in 1844. 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

Taxonomy

References

Further reading