Mourning sierra finch

The mourning sierra finch (Rhopospina fruticeti) is a species of South American bird in the tanager family Thraupidae.

Mourning sierra finch
Male mourning sierra finch
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thraupidae
Genus:	Rhopospina Cabanis, 1851
Species:	R. fruticeti
Binomial name
Rhopospina fruticeti (Kittlitz, 1833)
Synonyms
Fringilla fruticeti (protonym) Phrygilus fruticeti

It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. It is a vagrant to the Falkland Islands and Brazil. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland.

Taxonomy

The mourning sierra finch was formally described and illustrated in 1883 by the German naturalist Heinrich von Kittlitz under the binomial name Fringilla fruticeti.^[2] This species was formerly included in the genus Phrygilus.^[3] A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that Phrygilus was polyphyletic,^[4] and in the subsequent rearrangement, the mourning sierra finch was moved to the resurrected genus Rhopospina that had been introduced in 1851 by Jean Cabanis.^[5][6] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek rhōps meaning "bush" with spina meaning "finch". The specific epithet is from the Latin fruticetum meaning "thicket".^[7]

Three subspecies are recognised:^[6]

• R. f. peruviana (Zimmer, JT, 1924) – Peru and west Bolivia
• R. f. coracina (Sclater, PL, 1891) – southwest Bolivia and northeast Chile
• R. f. fruticeti (Kittlitz, 1833) – north to south Chile and west Argentina