Masked mountain tanager

The masked mountain tanager (Tephrophilus wetmorei) is a vulnerable species of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus Tephrophilus. This large and colourful tanager is endemic to elfin forest, woodland and shrub in the Andean highlands of southern Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru. It is generally rare or uncommon, and is threatened by habitat loss.

Masked mountain tanager
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thraupidae
Genus:	Tephrophilus R. T. Moore, 1934
Species:	T. wetmorei
Binomial name
Tephrophilus wetmorei R. T. Moore, 1934
Synonyms
Buthraupis wetmorei

Taxonomy

The masked mountain tanager was formally described in 1934 by the American ornithologist Robert Thomas Moore from a specimen collected at the base of the Sangay volcano in Ecuador. He introduced a new monospecific genus Tephrophilus to give the binomial name Tephrophilus wetmorei.^[2] The generic name combines the Ancient Greek tephra meaning "ashes" (i.e. volcano) and philos meaning "-loving".^[3] The specific epithet was chosen to honour the ornithologist Alexander Wetmore.^[2] The species was subsequently placed in the genus Buthraupis but when a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found Buthraupis was polyphyletic, the masked mountain tanager was returned to the resurrected genus Tephrophilus.^[4][5][6] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.^[6]