Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater, Sporophila torqueola

Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater, Sporophila torqueola atriceps, Male. Photograph taken in Huatabampo, Sonora, April 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater, Sporophila torqueola atriceps, Breeding Male. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, December 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater, Sporophila torqueola atriceps, Female. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, December 2018. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater, Sporophila torqueola atriceps, is one of two subspecies of Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater, both of which are found in Mexico. They are a member of the large Thraupidae Family of Tanagers and Allies, which has three hundred eighty-one individual species that have been placed into one hundred seven genera, and one of forty-one global species of the Sporophila Genus. They are known in Mexico as semillero torcaz.

The Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater are small in stature. The plumages of the males and females are similar during winter months being buffy brown and unstreaked above, pale cinnamon below being darker on the breast and flanks with a pale creamy chin, belly and vent. Breeding males develop white in their throats and a dark stripe around their throats. Their bills, iris and legs are black.

The Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater are found primarily in grassy and weedy fields, agricultural lands, pastures, moist savanna, and beach scrub. They feed on grass seeds supplemented by berries and insects. They are found in pairs or in flocks of several hundred individuals during non-breeding season. They have life spans of up to twelve years. The Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater has been poorly studied and very little has been documented about their biology and behavioral patterns.

The Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater is endemic to Mexico and found in Baja California Sur, and within the Pacific Slope from southern Sonora south to Oaxaca. The atriceps subspecies is found within the Pacific lowlands of Baja California Sur and from southern Sonora to western Durango and south to Nayarit and northern Jalisco at elevations up to 2,000 m (6,600 feet). They are non-migratory and year-round residents.

From a conservation perspective the Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater is currently considered to be of Least Concern, with stable, widely distributed populations. Their colonization in Baja California Sur in new and believe to be via introduction.