Buntings and New World Sparrows (Emberizidae)

Yellow-browed Sparrow (Ammodramus aurifrons) - HBW 16, p. 557

French: Bruant à front d’or German: Gelbwangenammer Spanish: Chingolo Cejigualdo

Taxonomy: Tanagra aurifrons Spix, 1825, “in provincia Bahia”; error = Fonte Bõa, Rio Solimões, Brazil.
Formerly placed with A. humeralis in a separate genus, Myospiza. The two sometimes considered to form a superspecies, but ranges overlap sufficiently to make such treatment implausible. Genetic studies indicate that the two are closely related to A. savannarum, which is, in turn, distant from other six species currently included in genus; these last should perhaps be reassigned to a different genus. Four subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

apurensis (Phelps, Sr & Gilliard, 1941) - NE Colombia E through llanos of W Venezuela to Orinoco Delta.
cherriei (Chapman, 1914) - EC Colombia (in llanos of Meta).
tenebrosus (J. T. Zimmer & Phelps, Sr, 1949) - SW Venezuela (SW Amazonas), SE Colombia (Guainía and E Vaupés) and adjacent W Brazil.
aurifrons (Spix, 1825) - SE Colombia (SE of Andes) S through E Ecuador and E Peru to NE Bolivia, and E through Amazonian Brazil.