Ecuadorian seedeater
The Ecuadorian seedeater is a species of bird in the cardinal family Cardinalidae that the International Ornithological Committee accepted as a species in 2015. It is found in the Andes in southwestern Colombia through Ecuador to northern Peru.
Taxonomy and systematics
The Ecuadorian seedeater was formally described in 1888 by the English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe based on specimens collected in Ecuador. He coined the binomial name Amaurospiza aequatorialis. The specific epithet is Late Latin for "equatorial", a name commonly used for species from Ecuador, ecuador means "equator" in Spanish.In 2015 the IOC split the subspecies Amaurospiza concolor aequatorialis from the blue seedeater as the Ecuadorian seedeater and renamed A. concolor Cabanis's seedeater. The decision was based on a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014. However, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society had previously rejected the split, and as of May 2021 the AOS North American Committee has not considered it and the Clements taxonomy has not adopted it. Confusingly, BirdLife International uses the scientific name A. moesta for blue seedeater, but the IOC, AOS, and Clements assign that binomial to blackish-blue seedeater. The BirdLife account encompasses what are now Cabanis's, Ecuadorian, and blackish-blue seedeaters.
The Ecuadorian seedeater is monotypic.