Black-winged Saltator

About the Black-winged Saltator

The black-winged saltator (Saltator atripennis) is a species of songbird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Colombia and Ecuador. The black-winged saltator was formally described in 1857 with its current binomial Saltator atripennis

The species' further taxonomy is unsettled. The IOC and AviList treat it as monotypic. However, as of late 2025 the Clements taxonomy and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World assigned it two subspecies, the nominate S. a. atripennis (Sclater, PL, 1857) and S. a. caniceps (Chapman, 1914).

This article follows the two-subspecies species model. The black-winged saltator is about 20.5 cm (8.1 in) long and weighs 44 to 60 g (1.6 to 2.1 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a mostly black head with a long and wide white supercilium and a small white patch at the rear of the ear coverts. Their upperparts are bright olive-green. Their wings and tail are mostly dull black with faint greenish edges on the tertials and often on the greater coverts. Their chin and throat are white, their breast dove-gray, their belly gray-white... Wikipedia →