Amaurospiza carrizalensis was recently described following collection of the holotype on Isla Carrizal in the Río Caroní, Venezuela. Since then habitat at the type locality on the island has been destroyed in the development of Guri Dam. Surveys in late 2007 and 2008 recorded the species in seven areas in the Caroní basin², but it is assumed to have an extremely small population and to be declining as other potentially suitable habitat continues to be destroyed. However, the low number of records may be partly due to the difficulty in surveying its habitat, which as a result has rarely been explored.