Saltator is a genus of passerine birds in the tanager family Thraupidae that are found in Central and South America.

Before the introduction of molecular genetic methods in the 21st century these species were placed in the cardinal family Cardinalidae.

The genus was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with the buff-throated saltator as the type species.

[4] The saltators were traditionally grouped with the cardinals, either in the subfamily Cardinalinae within an expanded Emberizidae[5] or in a separate family Cardinalidae.

It is now placed together with the many-colored Chaco finch in the genus Saltatricula as the two species form a divergent clade that is sister to the other members of Saltator.