White-winged Brushfinch (Atlapetes leucopterus) [XC250518]
by Mitch Lysinger from Zamora-Chinchipe: 1 km N Valladolid, Ecuador (song)
White-winged Brushfinch (Atlapetes leucopterus) [XC513926]
by Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Loaiza B. from Reserva Natural La Ceiba (Zapotillo - Loja) Balsa Real, Ecuador (call)
Subspecies
Atlapetes leucopterus and Atlapetes paynteri were putatively listed by Stotz et al. (1996) as potentially distinct at the species level, but this treatment is not recognised following SACC (2005) who retain paynteri within White-winged Brush-finch (Atlapetes leucopterus).
Has been suggested that subspecies paynteri be elevated to species rank. Further study is needed.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
leucopterus (Jardine, 1856) - Western slope in Ecuador (south to Chumbo Valley).
dresseri (Taczanowski, 1883) - South-western Ecuador (El Oro and Loja) and north-western Peru (Tumbes south to Cajamarca).
paynteri Fitzpatrick, 1980 - Extreme north-eastern Piura and northern Cajamarca (Cordillera del Condor), in north-western Peru. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Cream-crowned Brush-finch (Atlapetes paynteri).