The cacholotes are four species of relatively large, heavy-billed
furnariids
Ovenbirds or furnariids are a large family of small suboscine passerine birds found from Mexico and Central to southern South America. They form the family Furnariidae. This is a large family containing around 315 species and 70 genera. The ov ...
in the
genus ''Pseudoseisura''. They are found in shrubby habitats in the
South American countries of
Brazil,
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
,
Argentina,
Paraguay and
Uruguay. They are essentially brown (ranging from deep
rufous to pale gray-brown depending on species), and all are crested to some extent.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Pseudoseisura'' was introduced in 1853 by the German naturalist
Ludwig Reichenbach
Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (8 January 1793 – 17 March 1879) was a German botanist and ornithologist. It was he who first requested Leopold Blaschka to make a set of glass marine invertebrate models for scientific education and museu ...
to accommodate the
white-throated cacholote. The name combines the
Ancient Greek ''pseudos'' meaning "false" and ''seisoura'', a bird mentioned by the Greek lexicologist
Hesychius of Alexandria and believed to be a
wagtail ''Motacilla''.
Species
The genus contains four extant species:
The
allopatric
Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...
Caatinga and gray-crested cacholotes were formerly considered
conspecific under the name rufous cacholote (''Pseudoseisura cristata'').
Fossil species:
*†''
Pseudoseisura cursor'' (
Pleistocene of Argentina)
References
Bird genera
Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach
{{Furnariidae-stub