Band-tailed Sierra-Finch

About the Band-tailed Sierra-Finch

The band-tailed sierra finch (Rhopospina alaudina) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. The band-tailed sierra finch has a complicated taxonomic history that is not yet fully resolved. It was formally described in 1833 with the binomial Fringilla alaudina. By the early twentieth century it had been reassigned to the genus Phrygilus. At some time after 1993 some systems again reassigned it, this time to genus Porphyrospiza. That genus was long in family Emberizidae which at the time held many New and Old World species. There it was grouped with the cardinalines which were later separated as the family Cardinalidae. A study published in 2007 showed that the genus belonged in its present tanager family Thraupidae. Beginning in 2019 most taxonomic systems began reassigning the band-tailed sierra finch to the resurrected genus Rhopospina that had been erected in 1851. However, in 2016 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World moved it from Phrygilus to Corydospiza and as of late 2025 retains it there.

The band-tailed sierra finch has these six subspecies... Wikipedia →