The cinnamon-rumped seedeater (''Sporophila torqueola'') is a

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

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 lightweig ...

in the typical

seedeater {{Unreferenced, date=December 2007 The seedeaters are a form taxon of seed-eating passerine birds with a distinctively conical bill. Most are Central and South American birds that were formerly placed in the American sparrow family (Passerell ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 ...

''.

Taxonomy

This species is one of two resulting from the split of the former white-collared seedeater. The other former white-collared seedeater subspecies are now known as

Morelet's seedeater Morelet's seedeater (''Sporophila morelleti'') is a passerine bird in the typical seedeater genus ''Sporophila''. Taxonomy This species was formerly considered conspecific with the cinnamon-rumped seedeater (''Sporophila torqueola''), with the ...

. Genetic studies show that the cinnamon-rumped seedeater is more closely related to other ''Sporophila'' seedeaters than it is to Morelet's seedeater. There are two subspecies: *''S. t. torqueola'' is found in southern

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

and western Mexico. *''S. t. atriceps'' is found in central and southwestern Mexico.

Distribution and habitat

The cinnamon-rumped seedeater is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to western Mexico. It mainly inhabits

tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and t ...

but can also be found in pastures, arable land, and heavily degraded former forests.

Foraging

The cinnamon-rumped seedeater eats mainly seeds and insects, and occasionally berries. It frequently forages on top of herbaceous plants, and less often on the ground.

Taxonomy

Distribution and habitat

Foraging

References

Further reading