Left: CMD absolute magnitude M _[5.8]  versus  [5.8]  −  [8.0] . For the sake of clarity, the dot points represent only all objects catalogued in one 1 × 2.5 deg² GLIMPSE area centred on l ~ 0.5, b ~  −3 deg. The known RCB stars are represented by larger symbols: blue squares for the Large Magellanic Cloud (Alcock et al. 2001; Tisserand et al. 2009), green circle for the Small Magellanic Cloud (Tisserand et al. 2004), and red stars for the Galactic bulge (Zaniewski et al. 2005; Tisserand et al. 2008). The newly confirmed bulge RCBs are represented by full red triangles and the new candidates by empty red triangles. The RCB candidate KDM 5651 (Morgan et al. 2003) is represented by a cross. We used distance moduli of 18.5, 18.9, and 14.4 for the LMC, SMC, and Galactic center (GC) respectively. The selection area is delimited by dashed lines and the saturation level by a dotted one. Right: same as left, but the dot points represent all objects selected in the entire GLIMPSE area after the first mid-infrared selection (top) and the remaining objects after the second selection on near-infrared excess (bottom).