Flame-crested Tanager © pinterest.com

Genetic data indicate that this species is sister to Yellow-crested Tanager (Islerothraupis rufiventer)and that White-shouldered Tanager (Islerothraupis luctuosa) is sister to both of these. Present species exhibits marked geographical variation in plumage, with racial limits poorly defined. Very poorly known taxon nattereri, with distinctive male plumage, may represent a separate species but usually considered a subspecies of present species or aberrant example of madeirae. A female specimen once thought possibly to be of nattereri was subsequently reassigned to madeirae (recent "discovery" of an additional specimen, presumably of nattereri, may shed light on this question). Taxonomic status of isolated eastern coastal subspecies brunneus also worthy of investigation. Given the amount and complexity of variation within this species, and the fact that, conversely, differences between some subspecies seem trivial, a full taxonomic review seems warranted.

The following 10 subspecies are recognised:

• orinocensis Zimmer, JT & Phelps, 1945   -  Extreme eastern Colombia and southern and south-eastern Venezuela (northern and eastern Amazonas and western Bolí­var east to R Paragua and R Caroní­).
• intercedens von Berlepsch, 1880   -  Eastern Venezuela (east of R Caroní­) east to Guyana and Suriname.
• cristatus (Linnaeus, 1766)   -  French Guiana and north-eastern Brazil (north of R Amazon and east of R Nhamundá).
• cristatellus Sclater, PL, 1862   -  South-eastern Colombia (from vicinity of Villavicencio, in Meta) and southern Venezuela (south-western Amazonas) south to extreme north-western Peru and north-western Brazil (southern and east to Manaus).
• fallax Zimmer, JT, 1945   -  Southern Colombia (south-eastern Nariño), eastern Ecuador and northern Peru (south to lower R Ucayali).
• huarandosae Chapman, 1925   -  Huarandosa (in Chinchipe Valley, near Marañón Valley) in northern Peru.
• madeirae Hellmayr, 1910   -  Central Brazil south of Amazon (from Teffé east to R Xingu and southern into Mato Grosso), also adjacent south-eastern Peru (eastern Madre de Dios) and adjacent northern Bolivia (Pando and northern Beni).
• nattereri Pelzeln, 1870   -  West-central Mato Grosso (Villa Maria, near Cáceres), in south-western Brazil. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Natterer's Tanager (Tachyphonus nattereri).
• pallidigula Zimmer, JT, 1945   -  North-eastern Brazil (Pará and lower R Tocantins).
• brunneus (von Spix, 1825)   -  Eastern Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte south, discontinuously, to north-eastern Santa Catarina; possibly also Maranhío east to Paraí­ba.

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