Buntings and New World Sparrows (Emberizidae)

Yellow-breasted Brush-finch (Atlapetes latinuchus) - HBW 16, p. 586

French: Tohi à miroir German: Gelbbrust-Buschammer Spanish: Atlapetes Pechiamarillo
Other common names: Cloud-forest Brush-finch; Rufous-naped Brush-finch (latinuchus); Perija Brush-finch (nigrifrons); Yariguies Brush-finch (yariguierum)

Taxonomy: Buarremon latinuchus du Bus de Gisignies, 1855, Colombia and Peru.
Traditionally treated as conspecific with A. rufinucha, but molecular-genetic studies indicate that the two are not even each other’s closest relatives. It has been suggested that these two species, together with A. terborghi and A. melanolaemus, and A. schistaceus, are related in a complex manner, with yellow coloration lost or gained in a leap-frog pattern, such that taxa which do not look alike visually may in fact be closely related to each other. Vocal data and molecular studies suggest that race nigrifrons may not belong with present species, is perhaps not even closely related to it, and possibly merits elevation to species rank; it should be noted that, when Arremon torquatus is placed in present genus, name nigrifrons becomes preoccupied and must then be replaced by name phelpsi. Proposed race simplex (described from Bogotá, and probably originating from E Andes of Colombia), appears indistinguishable from spodionotus and is synonymized with it. Nine subspecies currently recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

nigrifrons Phelps, Sr & Gilliard, 1940 - Perijá Mts, on N Colombia–W Venezuela border.
elaeoprorus (P. L. Sclater & Salvin, 1879) - NC Andes of Colombia in Antioquia.
yariguierum Donegan & Huertas, 2006 - Serranía de los Yariguíes (Santander), in Colombia.

See all 9 subspecies

nigrifrons Phelps, Sr & Gilliard, 1940 - Perijá Mts, on N Colombia–W Venezuela border.
elaeoprorus (P. L. Sclater & Salvin, 1879) - NC Andes of Colombia in Antioquia.
yariguierum Donegan & Huertas, 2006 - Serranía de los Yariguíes (Santander), in Colombia.
caucae Chapman, 1927 - W Andes and W slope at S end of C Andes in Valle and Cauca, in Colombia.
spodionotus (P. L. Sclater & Salvin, 1879) - Andes in S Colombia (Nariño) and Ecuador (S to Chimborazo).
comptus (P. L. Sclater & Salvin, 1879) - SW Ecuador (from Cañar S to W Loja) and adjacent NW Peru (Piura).
latinuchus (du Bus de Gisignies, 1855) - SE Ecuador (from E Azuay and E Loja) S to N Peru (Amazonas).
chugurensis Chapman, 1927 - Pacific slope of Cajamarca, in NW Peru.
baroni (Salvin, 1895) - upper Marañón Valley in Cajamarca and La Libertad, in N Peru.