Buntings and New World Sparrows (Emberizidae)

Black-capped Warbling-finch (Poospiza melanoleuca) - HBW 16, p. 627

French: Chipiu à capuchon German: Schwarzkappen-Ammerfink Spanish: Monterita Cabecinegra
Other common names: White-breasted Warbling-finch; Grey-and-white Warbling-finch (when treated as conspecific with P. cinerea)

Taxonomy: Emberiza melanoleuca d’Orbigny and Lafresnaye, 1837, Chiquitos, Bolivia.
New molecular data indicate that genus forms a clade with the tanager (Thraupidae) genera Hemispingus and Thlypopsis, and that Compsospiza, which often subsumed within this genus, is sister to that clade. A recent molecular-genetic study indicated that present species belonged to a clade that included also P. alticola, P. erythrophrys and P. torquata. Until recently it was treated as conspecific with P. cinerea. Monotypic.

Distribution: SE Bolivia (Cochabamba and Santa Cruz S to E Chuquisaca and E Tarija), W & C Paraguay (except extreme E Alto Paraná), N & NC Argentina (Salta, Jujuy and Formosa S to San Luis, C Cordóba and extreme N Buenos Aires), W Uruguay and SE Brazil (extreme W Rio Grande do Sul).