Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Saltator grandis

Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Saltator grandis vigorsii. Photographs taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, February 2018 and November 2018. Photographs and identification courtesy of David F. Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Saltator grandis vigorsii, is large in stature and one of six subspecies of Cinnamon-bellied Saltator. It is a member of the Thraupidae Family of Tanagers and Allies, which has three hundred eighty-one individual species that have been placed into one-hundred seven genera and is one of sixteen global members of the Saltator Genus. They were recently split from the “Grayish Saltator Complex.” Five of the six subspecies reside in Mexico. They are known in Mexico as pepitero grisáceo norteño.

The Cinnamon-bellied Saltator is gray above and grayish or buff below with a strong whitish eyebrow and black malar stripes that boarder a white throat. Their bill is blackish, with some brown to gray-brown, and their legs and feet are black to lead gray.

The Cinnamon-bellied Saltator is a non-migratory year-round resident of all coastal regions of both the Atlantic Slope and the Pacific Slope with the exception of being absent from Tamaulipas on the Atlantic Slope, and northern Sonora on the Pacific Slope. The vigorsii subspecies is found in Northwest Mexico in southern Sonora, Sinaloa, western Durango, Nayarit, and northern coastal Jalisco.

They are found in a wide variety of habitats ranging from drier, semi-deciduous or deciduous vegetation to humid evergreen habitats within hedgerows, city parks and gardens, at elevations up to 1,500 m (4,900 feet). They are found in pairs or in small family groups. They feed on flower petals, fruits, leaves, and seeds, and limited amounts of small invertebrates. Their large, untidy open-cup nests containing bright blue eggs with black flecks and scrawls have been the subject of several studies. Their life spans are unknown.

From a conservation perspective the Cinnamon-bellied Saltator is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. Their populations have been expanding in some areas which has been attributed to human habitation.