Hooded Mountain Tanager

The hooded mountain tanager (Buthraupis montana) is a species of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is the only member of the genus Buthraupis. It is found in the forests and woodlands of the Andean highlands of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, at altitudes between . At 23 cm and 96 g, it is one of the largest tanagers. It has a black head and thighs, a blue back and bright yellow belly, with red eyes.

Taxonomy: The hooded mountain tanager was formally described in 1837 by the French naturalists Alcide d´Orbigny and Frédéric de Lafresnaye from a specimen collected in the Bolivian Yungas. They coined the binomial name Aglaia montana. It is now the only species placed in the genus Buthraupis that was introduced in 1851 by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek meaning "huge" and , an unknown small bird but used by ornithologists to signify a tanager. The specific name is from the Latin meaning "of the mountains".

Six subspecies are recognised:

• Buthraupis montana venezuelana Aveledo & Perez, 1989 – northwest Venezuela
• Buthraupis montana gigas (Bonaparte, 1851) – north Colombia
• Buthraupis montana cucullata (Jardine & Selby, 1842) – west, central Colombia to Ecuador
• Buthraupis montana cyanonota Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1896 – north, central Peru
• Buthraupis montana saturata Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1906 – southeast Peru
• Buthraupis montana montana (d´Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837) – west Bolivia