Tanagers (Thraupidae)

Lemon-rumped Tanager (Ramphocelus icteronotus) - HBW 16, p. 188

French: Tangara à dos citron German: Gelbrückentangare Spanish: Tangara Culigualda
Other common names: Yellow-rumped Tanager

Taxonomy: R[h]amphocelus icteronotus Bonaparte, 1838, Ecuador.
Usually treated as conspecific with R. flammigerus, and, despite striking visual differences, genetic differences between the two taxa apparently minimal; also, the two now apparently interbreed freely in W Andes of Colombia (along a relatively narrow but apparently stable band at middle elevations near crest of, or on, upper Pacific slope), where recent deforestation has permitted them to expand ranges and to meet. Differences between them, however, seem comparable to, and visually much more obvious than, those between R. passerinii and R. costaricensis, which are now regarded as two separate species. No races of present species described, but females and immatures from W Ecuador are more olive, less brown or grey, above than those farther N, and one individual from Panama and one from Ecuador showed a molecular-sequence divergence of 2·2%, approaching the levels at which many full species are recognized; further research required. Treated as monotypic.

Distribution: Panama from Caribbean slope in Bocas del Toro E across both slopes (from foothills of Veraguas) to Colombia (N base of W Andes, lower Cauca Valley and E to middle Magdalena Valley from Santander S to N Tolima, and on W slope of E Andes) and S along Pacific coast to SW Ecuador (Guayas, El Oro, W Loja) and adjacent NW Peru (Tumbes).