Tucuman Mountain-Finch

The Tucuman mountain finch is 16.5 to 18 cm (6.5 to 7.1 in) long and weighs 31.5 to 34.5 g (1.1 to 1.2 oz). It is rather stocky and heavy and has a long tail. The sexes have almost the same plumage. Adult males have a wide orange-rufous forehead that extends as a supercilium past the eye, an orange-rufous crescent under the eye, and an otherwise gray head. Their upperparts, tail, and wings are gray. Their throat and upper breast are orange-rufous, their lower breast, flanks and upper belly gray, their lower belly and vent very pale gray, and their crissum orange-rufous. They have a brown to dark reddish brown iris and grayish legs. Their maxilla is blackish and their mandible a paler blue-gray. Adult females have less rufous on their throat and breast than males but are otherwise the same. Juveniles have gray-brown upperparts and dark-streaked pale brown underparts.

The Tucuman mountain finch is found in northwestern Argentina intermittently from Jujuy Province south to northeastern La Rioja Province. It inhabits Puna grassland, nearby shrubby woodlands, streamside vegetation, and sometimes gardens. One source gives an elevational range of between 2,000 and 3,000 m (6,600 and 9,800 ft). Another gives it as 2,500 to 3,100 m (8,200 to 10,200 ft) with some individuals in the southern part of its range moving as low as 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in winter. One source also places the species in extreme southern Bolivia but the South American Classification Committee has only unconfirmed reports there.

The Tucuman mountain finch's diet has not been studied but is known to include insects and is assumed to also include seeds. It forages on the ground and near it in low shrubbery. It usually is in pairs and in the non-breeding season joins mixed-species feeding flocks.