Bluish-grey saltator
species of bird
The bluish-grey saltator or Amazonian grey saltator (Saltator coerulescens) is a passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae that is widespread in semi-open habitats in tropical and subtropical South America.
Two of its former subspecies groups, grandis (of Mexico and Central America) and olivascens (of northern South America and Trinidad), are now recognized as separate species, the cinnamon-bellied saltator and the olive-grey (or Caribbean grey) saltator.
Taxonomy
The bluish-grey saltator was formally described in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the binomial name Saltator coerulescens. Vieillot based his description on the "Habia de la Ceja Blanca" that Félix de Azara had described in 1802 in his book on birds in Paraguay and the Río de la Plata. The specific epithet coerulescens is derived from Latin and means "bluish".
Saltator coerulescens was formerly known as the greyish saltator and included two subspecies groups: grandis (including brevicaudus, hesperis, plumbiceps, vigorsii and yucatanensis) and olivascens (including brewsteri and plumbeus). In 2021, they were recognized as separate species, the cinnamon-bellied saltator (S. grandis) and olive-grey (or Caribbean grey) saltator (S. olivascens). With these as separate species, S. coerulescens includes the subspecies azarae, mutus and superciliaris.
Description
On average, the bluish-grey saltator is 20 cm long and weighs 52 g. The plumage depends on age and subspecies, but in general this bird has grey or greyish-olive upperparts, a white stripe over the eye, a narrow white throat, a grey breast and a buff or cinnamon belly.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bluish-grey saltator” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.