Buntings and New World Sparrows (Emberizidae)

White-collared Seedeater (Sporophila torqueola) - HBW 16, p. 651

French: Sporophile à col blanc German: Braunbürzelpfäffchen Spanish: Semillero Cuelliblanco
Other common names: Collared/Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater (torqueola and atriceps combined); Morellet’s/White-collared Seedeater (sharpei, morelleti and mutanda)

Taxonomy: Spermophila torqueola Bonaparte, 1850, Cuidad México, Mexico.
Molecular evidence suggests that genus is closely related to Oryzoborus, which should perhaps be subsumed within it; further, that both genera should be placed in the tanager family (Thraupidae). Races sharpei, morelleti and mutanda sometimes treated together as representing a separate species; no intermediates known between these and the two remaining races. Five subspecies generally recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

atriceps (Lawrence, 1867) - Pacific lowlands of Mexico from C & S Sinaloa and W Durango S to Nayarit and N Jalisco; S Baja California.
torqueola (Bonaparte, 1850) - C Mexico from Jalisco and Guanajuato E to Morelos and W Puebla, S to Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero and W & S Oaxaca.
sharpei Lawrence, 1889 - extreme S USA (lower R Grande Valley, in S Texas) and NE Mexico (Nuevo León and Tamaulipas S through E San Luis Potosí to N Veracruz).

See all 5 subspecies

atriceps (Lawrence, 1867) - Pacific lowlands of Mexico from C & S Sinaloa and W Durango S to Nayarit and N Jalisco; S Baja California.
torqueola (Bonaparte, 1850) - C Mexico from Jalisco and Guanajuato E to Morelos and W Puebla, S to Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero and W & S Oaxaca.
sharpei Lawrence, 1889 - extreme S USA (lower R Grande Valley, in S Texas) and NE Mexico (Nuevo León and Tamaulipas S through E San Luis Potosí to N Veracruz).
morelleti (Bonaparte, 1850) - E Mexico (N Veracruz) S on Caribbean slope (including Mujeres I, off NE Quintana Roo), and on Atlantic slope from El Salvador, to extreme W Panama.
mutanda Griscom, 1930 - S Mexico (S Chiapas) S to El Salvador.