Slaty Finch
Haplospiza rustica
Small finchlike bird, actually more closely related to tanagers. Male is uniform slaty gray overall with no contrasting plumage features. Female is paler grayish with some buffy tones on face and blurry streaking on breast. Best feature on both sexes is bill: fairly long and very pointy. A nomadic bamboo specialist, difficult to reliably locate because populations move around to follow seeding Chusquea bamboo. Usually seen singly or in pairs; typically stays on or near the ground. Listen for stuttering high-pitched song.
Identification
The slaty finch (Haplospiza rustica) is a bird species in the family Thraupidae (formerly in Emberizidae). It is found in Central America and the northern Andes. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and heavily degraded former forest.
Taxonomy
Genus: Haplospiza; Family: Thraupidae; Order: Passeriformes.
- Scientific name
- Haplospiza rustica
- Authority
- (Tschudi, 1844)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
- Genus
- Haplospiza
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds

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Macaroni Penguin
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Medium-sized bulky penguin with a bulbous red bill and a dash of stiff orange “hair.” Disappointingly, named for the resemblance of its spiffy, “fashionable” crest to the hairstyle of fashionable youth, or “macaronis”, and not for the pasta-sauce-orange color of the crest itself. Similar to Southern Rockhopper Penguin, but note Macaroni’s larger size, much more heavy build, chunkier bill, and a droopier, more orange, crest. Breeds in noisy colonies on rocky islands, across a wide area of the Subantarctic and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
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