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1 October 2013 A New Species of Gray Seedeater (Emberizidae: Sporophila) from Upland Grasslands of Southern Brazil
Márcio Repenning, Carla Suertegaray Fontana
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Abstract

An analysis of morphology, vocalization, habitat preference, and distribution revealed that the southern yellowbilled population ascribed to the Plumbeous Seedeater (Sporophila plumbea) is actually an undescribed species. Individuals of this new species are distinguishable from other Sporophila, particularly S. plumbea, by a combination of diagnostic characters: (1) the adult male has a robust, bright yellow bill with an arched culmen, distinguishing it from S. plumbea and other gray seedeaters; (2) the adult male is larger and heavier than S. plumbea; (3) the adult plumage of males is bluish gray (not plumbeous gray, as in S. plumbea); (4) vocalizations include song that is structurally similar to that of S. plumbea but with clear (whistled) introductory syllables and unique call notes. The new seedeater is segregated from other gray seedeaters in its breeding habitat and breeding distribution. It is endemic to Brazil, where it breeds in upland shrub-grasslands associated with Araucaria forests in southern Brazil and migrates northward to the Cerrado to winter.

©2013 by The American Ornithologists' Union. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp.
Márcio Repenning and Carla Suertegaray Fontana "A New Species of Gray Seedeater (Emberizidae: Sporophila) from Upland Grasslands of Southern Brazil," The Auk 130(4), 791-803, (1 October 2013). https://doi.org/10.1525/auk.2013.12167
Received: 11 September 2012; Accepted: 1 June 2013; Published: 1 October 2013
KEYWORDS
Brazilian endemic bird
ecological speciation
habitat segregation
taxonomy
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