Saltator

Taxobox
name = "Saltator"


image_width = 240px
image_caption = Greyish Saltator "Saltator coerulescens"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Passeriformes
familia = see text
genus = "Saltator"
genus_authority = Vieillot, 1816
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = Presently some 15, but see text.

"Saltator" is an American genus of songbird. They are traditionally placed in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae) but actually seem to be closer to tanagers (Thraupidae). The name saltators is the English name for the group for lack of a better term, and the English names of all except two species end in "Saltator".

"Saltator" is Latin for "leaper" or "dancer". Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot applied it to this genus because of the heavy way the birds hop on the ground. [Jobling & Fowling (1992)]

The saltators as traditionally defined are apparently neither monophyletic nor allied with the cardinals. As already noted over 100 years ago [Ridgway (1901)] , they are a morphologically diverse group, encompassing generally robust and fairly drab nine-primaried oscines. The different species may appear more similar to grosbeaks, tanagers or even shrikes than to cardinals, and the pattern of their eggs is also conspicuously diverse [Echeverry-Galvis & Córdoba-Córdoba (2006)] . Altogether, the "genus" seems more like an assemblage that is brought together more by the fact that these birds seemed even less close to other groups than among themselves, rather than by a very close relationshipHellack & Schnell (1977)] . More extreme cases of adaptive radiation exist in birds, but this process hardly ever occurs outside island groups like Hawaiian honeycreepers, vangas, Malagasy warblers or the famous Galápagos finches.

The latest comprehensive analysis of the genus was a 1977 study which today would not be accepted whole-cloth because it followed the phenetic methodology then "en vogue" but now considered outdated. Nonetheless, even here the case for "Saltator" monophyly was weak already. Where "Saltator" species have been included in cladistic studies [Klicka "et al." (2000), Ericson & Johansson (2003)] they appear to be related to various tanagers. If this is verified after a more thorough study they would probably be transferred to this family. Preliminary work [Klicka "et al." (2004)] seems to support this, but for now they are best considered "incertae sedis".

The following is a full list of "Saltator" species:
* Lesser Antillean Saltator "Saltator albicollis"
* Streaked Saltator "Saltator striatipectus"
* Greyish Saltator "Saltator coerulescens"
* Buff-throated Saltator "Saltator maximus"
* Black-headed Saltator "Saltator atriceps"
* Slate-coloured Grosbeak "Saltator grossus"
* Black-throated Grosbeak "Saltator fuliginosus"
* Black-winged Saltator "Saltator atripennis"
* Green-winged Saltator "Saltator similis"
* Orinocan Saltator "Saltator orenocensis"
* Black-cowled Saltator "Saltator nigriceps"
* Golden-billed Saltator "Saltator aurantiirostris"
* Thick-billed Saltator "Saltator maxillosus"
* Masked Saltator "Saltator cinctus"
* Black-throated Saltator "Saltator atricollis"
* Rufous-bellied Saltator "Saltator rufiventris"

Footnotes

References

* (2006): Descripción del huevo del saltátor collarejo ("Saltator cinctus") y comentarios preliminares sobre huevos del género "Saltator". ["Description of the egg of the Masked Saltator ("S. cinctus") and preliminary comments on the eggs of the genus "Saltator"] . "Boletín de la Sociedad Antioqueña de Ornitología" 16(1): 76-84. [Spanish with English abstract] [http://www.sao.org.co/publicaciones/boletinsao/11Echeverry&CordobaSaltator.pdf PDF fulltext]
* (2003): Phylogeny of Passerida (Aves: Passeriformes) based on nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data. "Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution" 29: 126-138.
* (1977): Phenetic analysis of the subfamily Cardinalinae using external and skeletal characteristics. "Wilson Bulletin" 89: 130-148.
* (1991): "A Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names". Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-854634-3
* (2000): New World nine-primaried oscine relationships: constructing a mitochondrial DNA framework. "Auk" 117: 321-326.
* (2004): Defining a monophyletic Cardinalidae: a molecular perspective. 122nd Stated Meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union, Presentation 40. [http://www.aou.org/meetings/abstracts/AOU_Meeting_Abstracts_122_2004.pdf PDF abstract]
* (1901): The birds of North and Middle America, etc.. Part 1. "Bulletin of the U.S. National Museum" 50(1): 1-715.

External links

* [http://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/familia.phtml?idFamilia=202 Saltator videos] on the Internet Bird Collection