Habitat
Subtropical and tropical dry grassland, subtropical and tropical high altitude shrubland, subtropical and tropical moist shrubland. From sea-level - 2,300 m.
Anguilla, Antigua And Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ecuador, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique, Montserrat, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St Kitts And Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Yellow-bellied Seedeater (Sporophila) [XC262689]
by Paul Coopmans from Esmeraldas: Playa de Oro, village and vicinity, R\u00edo Santiago, Ecuador (song)
Yellow-bellied Seedeater (Sporophila nigricollis) [XC246339]
by Niels Krabbe from Entre Rios, Florencia-Caquet\u00e1, Colombia (call)
Subspecies
Molecular evidence suggests that genus is closely related to Oryzoborus, which should perhaps be subsumed within it. Further, that both genera should be placed in the tanager family (Thraupidae). Molecular-genetic data indicate that present species belongs in a clade with Rusty-collared Seedeater (Sporophila collaris), Black-and-white Seedeater (Sporophila luctuosa) and Double-collared Seedeater (Sporophila caerulescens). Possibly conspecific with Dubois's Seedeater (Sporophila ardesiaca).
Proposed taxon Hooded Seedeater (Sporophila melanops), known only from one adult male collected in 1823 on eastern bank of R Araguaia (extreme west-central Goiás), in south-central Brazil, is believed to have been a variant of present species or a hybrid between it and a congener.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
nigricollis (Vieillot, 1823) - Southern Costa Rica and Panama to north, western and eastern Colombia and probably eastern Ecuador, east through Venezuela to Suriname, including southern Lesser Antilles (Carriacou, Grenada), and Trinidad and Tobago; east-central and eastern Brazil south to Mato Grosso and Sío Paulo, extreme eastern Bolivia (eastern Santa Cruz) and north-eastern Argentina (Misiones).
vivida Hellmayr, 1938 - South-western Colombia (Nariño) and western Ecuador.
inconspicua von Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1906 - Peruvian Andes southern on western slope to Lambayeque and on eastern slope to Cuzco.
olivacea (von Berlepsch & Taczanowski, 1884) - South-western Colombia and western Ecuador.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet