Canary Islands Chaffinch
Fringilla canariensis
Dapper little finch endemic to the Canarias, where it inhabits a range of habitats, from forests to farmlands. Handsome, brightly colored male has a blue-grayish cowl, pale orangish face and breast, and a black-and-white wing pattern (colors muted in winter). Female much drabber but shares male pattern; especially note the complex wing pattern. Both sexes have white outer tail feathers, often striking in flight such as when flushed. Song is a somewhat buzzy series of up-and-down notes; calls include a somewhat sparrow-like “dwee!”
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Fringilla canariensis
- Authority
- Vieillot, 1817
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Fringillidae
- Genus
- Fringilla
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Beautiful Woodpecker
Melanerpes pulcher
Medium-sized woodpecker endemic to northern Colombia. Strikingly patterned: black above and buffy below with bright red crown, yellow nape, black mask, barred flanks, and a white stripe down the back. Found in dry woodlands and edges, usually in pairs. Compare with Black-cheeked Woodpecker, which lacks a yellow nape and has white spots on the wings.
Hainan Leaf Warbler
Phylloscopus hainanus
Beautifully luminous small leaf warbler restricted to the forests of China’s Hainan Island. Bright yellow all over, though darker wings and crown make paler wingbars and eyebrow visible nonetheless. Fairly distinctive in its limited range; Hartert’s Leaf Warbler also has a yellow cast but is duller overall and much larger, with a much more elongated appearance. Song is a short jumble of squeaky high-pitched notes akin to a machine that needs oiling.
Sooty-crowned Flycatcher
Myiarchus phaeocephalus
Fairly large flycatcher found mainly in dry forest in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru. It has a gray-brown crown (often raised to look “bushy”), an ashy throat, and a yellow belly. Dark head helps distinguish it from kingbirds. This species is one of many in the genus Myiarchus, members of which are notoriously difficult to identify by plumage alone; this is the only one in most of its range that prefers dry forest, but it overlaps with Brown-crested Flycatcher in the Marañon drainage. Sooty-crowned has a grayer crown and more chestnut in the wings and tail. Calls include a nasal, whiny whistle, a short rasp, and a creaky “wi-dit.”
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