 Between 1951, when 5 were taken near El Salto, and 2004, when a small population was rediscovered in the same area, the northern population from Jalisco and Durango states was not found and believed to have disappeared.Meanwhile, the proposed subspecies "X. b. sierrae" for the southern population was recognized to be based on individual variation and hence invalid; nonetheless, there is no gene flow between the populations and they constitute two separate ESUs.It is the sole species in the genus "Xenospiza"; the genus is closely related to "Ammodramus" (and included in it by some authors), differing mainly in the longer, less pointed tail, and restriction to high altitude alpine grassland habitats.