Vilcabamba Brushfinch Atlapetes terborghi Scientific name definitions

Between 1966 and 1970, ornithologists John Terborgh and John Weske, with a small team of assistants, mounted an audacious series of expeditions to the crest of the wild and uninhabited Cordillera Vilcabamba, in south central Peru. The purpose of these expeditions was to study the ecological relationships of bird species with regard to elevation, in pristine habitat. Incidental to these ecological studies, Terborgh and Weske encountered several species that previously were unknown to biologists: Cloud-forest Screech-Owl (Megascops marshalli), Vilcabamba Thistletail (Asthenes vilcabambae), Parodi's Hemispingus (Hemispingus parodii), and Vilcabamba Brush-Finch. Three of these species later were found at additional localities, but Vilcabamba Brush-Finch has not been encountered again. Little is known about this brush-finch in life, other than that it occupies humid montane forest and elfin forests, between 2520-3520 m. Vilcabamba Brush-Finch has a rufous crown and nape; dark green back, with blacker wings and tail; and bright yellow underparts, washed with olive on the flanks. It is similar in appearance to Yellow-breasted Brush-Finch (Atlapetes latinuchus) of the northern Andes and to Bolivian Brush-Finch (Atlapetes rufinucha) of Bolivia, but is more closely related to Black-faced Brush-Finch (Atlapetes melanoleamus) of southern Peru and northernmost Bolivia.