CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Known solely from a unique male collected in centralBrazil in the 19th century, the Critically Endangered Hooded Seedeater Sporophilamelanops has been one of the great enigmas of Neotropical ornithology. Wereanalysed the morphology of the type specimen, as well as a female specimenpostulated to represent the same taxon, and sequenced mitochondrial DNA (COIand Cyt-b) of both individuals. We visited the type locality and its environson multiple occasions at different seasons, searching for birds with similarmorphology to the type, without success. Available evidence demonstrates thatthe type of S. melanops is not closely related to Yellow-belliedSeedeater S. nigricollis, as has been frequently postulated, but is infact a representative of the ?capuchinos? clade. Our morphological analysisindicates that the most likely possibility is that the male specimen is aDark-throated Seedeater S. ruficollis collected within its winteringrange, acquiring breeding plumage and showing melanism on the cap feathers;alternatively, it may be a melanistic-capped individual of a local populationof seedeaters known to breed in the Esteros del Iberá, Corrientes, Argentina,to which the name S. ruficollis mightbe applicable, whilst the name S.plumbeiceps might be available for what is currently known as S. ruficollis. The purported femalespecimen pertains either to S. nigricollis or to Double-collaredSeedeater S. caerulescens. Morphological conclusions agree with ourmolecular results. A hybrid origin of S. melanops cannot be ruled outfrom the available data, but seems unlikely. We conclude that Sporophilamelanops is not typical of any natural population of seedeaters.