A new subspecies of Common Bush-Tanager (Chlorospingus Artículo flavopectus, Emberizidae) from the east slope of the Andes of Colombia Una nueva subespecie de Montero Común (Chlorospingus flavopectus, Emberizidae) de la vertiente oriental de los Andes de Colombia Jorge Enrique Avendaño1,2, F. Gary Stiles3 & Carlos Daniel Cadena1 1Laboratorio de Biología Evolutiva de Vertebrados, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de los Andes, A.A. Ornitología Colombiana Ornitología 4976, Bogotá, Colombia. 2Current address: Programa de Biología y Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad de los Llanos, Sede Barcelona, Villavicencio, Colombia. 3Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, A.A. 7495, Bogotá, Colombia.
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[email protected] Abstract We describe Chlorospingus flavopectus olsoni, subsp. nov. from the east slope of the Eastern Andes of Colombia. Specimens from the range of the new subspecies have been traditionally referred to C. f. macarenae, a subspecies endemic to the Ser- ranía de la Macarena. However, C. f. olsoni differs from C. f. macarenae in plumage, iris coloration, and morphometrics. The new subspecies is more similar in plumage and vocal characters to subspecies exitelus and nigriceps from the Central and Eastern Andes. Ecological niche modeling suggests that C. f. olsoni is potentially restricted to a small belt of cloud forest south of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy to the depression known as Las Cruces Pass in the department of Huila. The species C. flavopectus is not threatened, but the accelerated deforestation of cloud forests in Colombia and the uncertainty about spe- cies limits in the complex call attention to the importance of preserving the remaining patches of this highly species-rich eco- system.