Iridosornis

Iridosornis is a genus of Neotropical birds in the tanager family Thraupidae

Iridosornis
Golden-crowned tanager (I. rufivertex)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thraupidae
Genus:	Iridosornis Lesson, 1844
Type species
Arremon rufivertex Lafresnaye, 1842
Species
See text

These birds live in the Andes mostly at high altitudes. Their plumage is mainly blue and all of them have contrasting patches of yellow.^[1]

Taxonomy and species list

The genus Iridosornis was introduced in 1844 by the French naturalist René Lesson with the golden-crowned tanager as the type species.^[2][3] The name combines the Ancient Greek iris meaning "rainbow" with ornis meaning "bird".^[4] A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that this genus had a sister relationship to the vermilion tanager which is placed in its own monospecific genus Calochaetes.^[5]

The genus contains five species:^[6]

Genus Iridosornis – Lesson, 1844 – five species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Purplish-mantled tanager	Iridosornis porphyrocephalus Sclater, PL, 1856	Colombia and Ecuador	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Yellow-throated tanager	Iridosornis analis (Tschudi, 1844)	Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Golden-collared tanager	Iridosornis jelskii Cabanis, 1873	Bolivia and Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Golden-crowned tanager	Iridosornis rufivertex (Lafresnaye, 1842)	Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC
Yellow-scarfed tanager	Iridosornis reinhardti Sclater, PL, 1865	Peru	Size: Habitat: Diet:	LC