Orinocan Saltator

The Orinoco saltator is 18.5 to 19 cm (7.3 to 7.5 in) long; six individuals weighed an average of 33.7 g (1.2 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a mostly black face with a long white supercilium and a small white spot at the base of the bill. Their crown, nape, and upperparts are slate-gray. Their wings are mostly blackish with slate-gray edges on the coverts; their primaries are brownish with thin pale edges on the outer webs. Their tail is dull black. Their chin, throat, and breast are white, their belly and flanks buff, and their vent and undertail coverts are buffy brown. Subspecies S. o. rufescens is larger than the nominate with a black forehead and sides of the crown and dark buffy-clay underparts. Both subspecies have a brown iris, a black maxilla, a blackish mandible with a pale lead-gray base, and blackish legs and feet.

The Orinoco saltator has a disjunct distribution. Subspecies S. o. rufescens is the more northerly of the two. It is found on far northern Colombia's Guajira Peninsula and through northwestern Venezuela north of the Andes. The nominate subspecies is found from northern Vichada, northern Casanare, and eastern Arauca departments in east-central Colombia east across central Venezuela from Apure northeast to western Sucre, southern Monagas, far western Delta Amacuro, and northern Bolívar states. In the north subspecies S. o. rufescens inhabits dry deciduous woodlands and brushlands. The nominate is a bird of the Llanos, where it inhabits gallery forest, scrublands, and brushy areas. In elevation it is found below 500 m (1,600 ft) in Colombia and below 600 m (2,000 ft) in Venezuela.

The Orinoco saltator feeds primarily on fruits, seeds, and flowers, and to a much lesser extent on insects. It forages in twos or threes, usually high up in trees. It seldom joins mixed-species feeding flocks.