Cnemathraupis

Cnemathraupis is a small genus of mountain tanagers found in forest and woodland in the Andes of South America. The two species are uncommon and relatively large tanagers with a contrasting blue, yellow and black plumage (golden-backed mountain tanager also has some brown; black-chested mountain tanager some green).

Cnemathraupis
Black-chested mountain tanager, (Cnemathraupis eximia)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thraupidae
Genus:	Cnemathraupis Penard, 1919
Type species
Tanagra eximia Boissonneau, 1840

Taxonomy and species list

These species were formerly included with the hooded mountain tanager in the genus Buthraupis. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 found that Buthraupis was polyphyletic.^[1] To create monophyletic genera, the black-chested mountain tanager and the golden-backed mountain tanager were moved to the resurrected genus Cnemathraupis that had been erected by Thomas Penard in 1919 with the black-chested mountain tanager as the type species.^[2][3] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek knēmē meaning "leg" or "shin" and thraupis, an unknown small bird.^[4] The genus is sister to the grass-green tanager in the monotypic genus Chlorornis.^[5]

The genus contains the two species:^[3]

Genus Cnemathraupis – Penard, 1919 – two species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Black-chested mountain tanager	Cnemathraupis eximia (Boissonneau, 1840)	Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Golden-backed mountain tanager	Cnemathraupis aureodorsalis (Blake & Hocking, 1974)	central Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	EN