Pectoral sparrow

The pectoral sparrow (Arremon taciturnus) is a species of bird in the family Passerellidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. The yellow-mandibled sparrow was formerly considered as a subspecies.

Pectoral sparrow
Pectoral Sparrow in Rio Formoso, Pernambuco, Brazil
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Passerellidae
Genus:	Arremon
Species:	A. taciturnus
Binomial name
Arremon taciturnus (Hermann, 1783)
Synonyms
Tanagra taciturna Hermann, 1783

Taxonomy

The pectoral sparrow was described in 1779 by French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux under the French name "L'Oiseau Silencieux".^[2][3] It was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate that was produced to accompany Buffon's book.^[4] Buffon did not use binomial names but in 1783 the French naturalist Johann Hermann coined the name Tanagra taciturna.^[5] The specific epithet taciturnus is the Latin word for "silent" or "quiet".^[6] The species is now placed in the genus Arremon that was erected by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with the pectoral sparrow as the type species.^[7][8]

Two subspecies are recognised:^[8]

• A. t. taciturnus (Hermann, 1783) – east Colombia, central and south Venezuela, the Guianas, Amazonian Brazil and northeast Bolivia
• A. t. nigrirostris Sclater, PL, 1886 – southeast Peru and north Bolivia

The yellow-mandibled sparrow (Arremon axillaris) was formerly considered as a subspecies.^[8]

Distribution and habitat

The species can be found everywhere in the Amazon Basin except for its western parts. Besides the Amazon jungle it is found in eastern and north-eastern Brazil.^[9]