Sporophila

Sporophila is a genus of Neotropical birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. The genus now includes the six seed finches that were previously placed in the genus Oryzoborus.

Sporophila
Male variable seedeater
Female
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thraupidae
Genus:	Sporophila Cabanis, 1844
Type species
Pyrrhula falcirostris Temminck, 1820

They are relatively small with stubby, conical bills adapted for feeding on seeds and alike. Most species are strongly sexually dimorphic, and while "typical" adult males often are distinctive, female and immatures of both sexes can be very difficult (in some species virtually impossible) to identify to exact species.^[1] Females of at least some of these species have different ultraviolet colours, which can be seen by birds, but not humans.^[2] Female-like (paedomorphic) males apparently also occur, at least in some species.^[3]

Taxonomy and species list

The genus Spermophila was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827.^[4] The type species was subsequently designated as Temminck's seedeater (Sporophila falcirostris) by George Robert Gray in 1841.^[5] As the genus name Spermophila had been introduced by John Richardson in 1825 for a genus of mammals,^[6] the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis coined the present name Sporophila as a replacement in 1844.^[7][8] The name combines the Ancient Greek sporos meaning "seed" and philos meaning "-loving".^[9]

The genus now includes the six seed finches that were previously placed in Oryzoborus as well as the thick-billed seed finch that was the only species in Dolospingus. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that these seven species were embedded in Sporophila.^[10]

The genus contains 41 species:^[11]

Image	Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Lesson's seedeater	Sporophila bouvronides	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.
	Lined seedeater	Sporophila lineola	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
	Cinnamon-rumped seedeater	Sporophila torqueola	western Mexico
	Morelet’s seedeater	Sporophila morelleti	Rio Grande Valley through eastern Mexico and Central America to western Panama
	Variable seedeater	Sporophila corvina	southern Mexico through Central America to the Chocó of northwestern South America
	Grey seedeater	Sporophila intermedia	Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.
	Wing-barred seedeater	Sporophila americana	north-eastern Venezuela, Tobago, the Guianas, Brazil
	White-naped seedeater	Sporophila fringilloides	Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela.
	Black-and-white seedeater	Sporophila luctuosa	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
	Double-collared seedeater	Sporophila caerulescens	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay
	Yellow-bellied seedeater	Sporophila nigricollis	Costa Rica to Bolivia
	Dubois's seedeater	Sporophila ardesiaca	east-central Brazil
	Thick-billed seed finch	Sporophila funerea	southern Mexico, through Central America, to the Chocó in Colombia and Ecuador.
	Chestnut-bellied seed finch	Sporophila angolensis	Trinidad, Tobago, east Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Bolivia to east Brazil, Paraguay and northeast Argentina
	Nicaraguan seed finch	Sporophila nuttingi	Costa Rica, Nicaragua and northwestern Panama.
	Great-billed seed finch	Sporophila maximiliani	Brazil
	Large-billed seed finch	Sporophila crassirostris	Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.
	Black-billed seed finch	Sporophila atrirostris	Ecuador, Peru and northwestern Bolivia
	Slate-coloured seedeater	Sporophila schistacea	Central America, the southwestern Amazon Basin, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago and the Guianas.
	Temminck's seedeater	Sporophila falcirostris	Argentina and southeastern Brazil
	Buffy-fronted seedeater	Sporophila frontalis	northeastern Argentina and along the southeastern Brazil
	Plumbeous seedeater	Sporophila plumbea	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
	Tropeiro seedeater	Sporophila beltoni	Brazil
	Rusty-collared seedeater	Sporophila collaris	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
	White-throated seedeater	Sporophila albogularis	Brazil.
	White-bellied seedeater	Sporophila leucoptera	Bolivia, Paraguay and eastern Brazil
	Parrot-billed seedeater	Sporophila peruviana	Ecuador and western Peru.
	Chestnut-throated seedeater	Sporophila telasco	southwestern Colombia to far northern Chile.
	Drab seedeater	Sporophila simplex	Ecuador and Peru.
	Chestnut-bellied seedeater	Sporophila castaneiventris	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela
	Ruddy-breasted seedeater	Sporophila minuta	Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.
	Copper seedeater	Sporophila bouvreuil	Brazil and Suriname.
	Black-and-tawny seedeater	Sporophila nigrorufa	eastern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil.
	Tawny-bellied seedeater	Sporophila hypoxantha	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
	Dark-throated seedeater	Sporophila ruficollis	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay
	Pearly-bellied seedeater	Sporophila pileata	Brazil, Paraguay, northern Uruguay and northeastern Argentina.
	Rufous-rumped seedeater	Sporophila hypochroma	Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay
	Chestnut seedeater	Sporophila cinnamomea	Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay
	Marsh seedeater	Sporophila palustris	Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
	Black-bellied seedeater	Sporophila melanogaster	Brazil.
	Ibera seedeater	Sporophila iberaensis	Argentina.

Possible extinct species:

• Hooded seedeater, Sporophila melanops – possibly extinct (20th century?), a hybrid or a color morph of S. nigricollis