Ecuadorian Seedeater Amaurospiza aequatorialis is split from Blue Seedeater Amaurospiza concolor (Clements 2007:672)

Summary: The distribution of the Blue Seedeater is now limited to Middle America, while the scarce Ecuadorian Seedeater is found mainly in western Ecuador; it barely reaches southern Colombia and northern Peru.

Details: Each of the three taxa considered part of A. concolor in Paynter (1970) were originally described as a full species. However, the treatment of these widely disjunct taxa has varied since then. All are fairly similar in plumage and vocalizations. Recent molecular and integrative analyses (Scott 1922, Areta et al. 2023) support the treatment of A. aequatorialis as a separate species, while relicta is retained within A. concolor, the treatment now agreed upon by NACC (Chesser et al. 2023), WGAC, Gill and Donsker (2015; IOC v.5.2), and Clements et al. (2023); the SACC decision is pending.

English names: The English name Ecuadorian Seedeater aligns with Gill and Donsker (2015; IOC v.5.2) and Areta et al. (2023).