Chestnut-bellied Seed-Finch
Sporophila angolensis
Widespread but uncommon in lowlands of South America, mainly east of the Andes. Male is mostly black with a rich chestnut belly. Female is plain warm brown. Both sexes have very large dark bill. Typically found in pairs, not in flocks like seedeaters often are, but occasionally joins a mixed flock of other "weed-eating" birds. Occurs in shrubby or grassy areas at the edge of woods.
Taxonomy
The chestnut-bellied seed finch was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Loxia angolensis. Linnaeus based his description on "The Black Gros-Beak" that had been described and illustrated in 1764 by the English naturalist George Edwards. Edwards's illustration was from a live bird belonging to the barrister Philip Carteret Webb. Edwards mistakenly believed that the bird had come from Angola. The chestnut-bellied seed finch does not occur there and the type locality is now designated as eastern Brazil.<p>The chestnut-bellied seed finch and the thick-billed seed finch were formerly considered conspecific and together had the English name "lesser seed-finch". Both species were formerly placed in the genus Oryzoborus but molecular phylogenetic studies found that Oryzoborus was embedded in Sporophila. The chestnut-bellied seed finch was therefore moved to Sporophila, a genus that had been introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1844.<p>Two subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Sporophila angolensis
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
- Genus
- Sporophila
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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