Poospiza

Poospiza is a genus of finch-like tanagers found in both the South American lowlands and the Andes mountains. Generally they are arboreal feeders in light woodland and scrub. All have extensive grey to their plumage, and have&mdash;often bold&mdash;white or rufous markings.

Taxonomy
Despite many similarities in plumage the genus&mdash;as traditionally defined&mdash;appears to consist of four groups each of which are paraphyletic with representatives of six other tanager genera all forming a well-supported clade. Lougheed studied twelve of the seventeen species and consistently recovered the following four groups:


 * 1. P. hypochondria and P. caesar
 * 2. P. torquata, P. melanoleuca, P. alticola, and P. erythrophrys
 * 3. P. baeri and P. garleppi.
 * 4. P. ornata and P. boliviana

Based on this and other evidence, the two members of group 3 have recently been moved from Poospiza into the resurrected genus Compsospiza.

Additionally, P. caesar was formerly classified in the monotypic genus Poospizopsis.

Species list

 * Black-and-rufous Warbling-Finch, Poospiza nigrorufa
 * Bolivian Warbling-Finch, Poospiza boliviana
 * Cinnamon Warbling-Finch, Poospiza ornata
 * Collared Warbling-Finch, Poospiza hispaniolensis
 * Rufous-breasted Warbling-Finch, Poospiza rubecula
 * Cochabamba Mountain-Finch, Poospiza garleppi
 * Tucuman Mountain-Finch, Poospiza baeri
 * Slaty-backed Hemispingus, Poospiza goeringi
 * Rufous-browed Hemispingus, Poospiza rufosuperciliaris

In other genera
Genus Castanozoster:
 * Bay-chested Warbling-Finch, Castanozoster thoracica

Genus Microspingus:
 * Buff-throated Warbling-Finch, Microspingus lateralis
 * Grey-throated Warbling-Finch, Microspingus cabanisi
 * Rusty-browed Warbling-Finch, Microspingus erythrophrys
 * Plain-tailed Warbling-Finch, Microspingus alticola
 * Ringed Warbling-Finch, Microspingus torquata
 * Black-capped Warbling-Finch, Microspingus melanoleuca
 * Cinereous Warbling-Finch, Microspingus cinerea

Genus Poospizopsis:
 * Rufous-sided Warbling-Finch, Poospizopsis hypocondria
 * Chestnut-breasted Mountain-Finch, Poospizopsis caesar