Principe Seedeater
Crithagra rufobrunnea
An incredibly dowdy small seedeater with a pink-horn bill and a pale throat. On São Tomé its color is gray-brown and on Príncipe more buffy-cinnamon. On São Tomé it is a common resident in most habitats from primary forest to suburban gardens up to 1500 meters of elevation; on Príncipe it is uncommon and more restricted to forest. Song is variable, but mostly a strident, rapidly delivered series of high-pitched notes “tseet-teet-teet-teet-tseeu-tseeu-tseeu” or similar; call is a slurred “tshweet.” The much larger Sao Tome Grosbeak is chestnut in color and rare in remote forest on São Tomé; Yellow-fronted Canary is much brighter.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Crithagra rufobrunnea
- Authority
- (Gray, GR, 1862)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Fringillidae
- Genus
- Crithagra
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Sooty Barbthroat
Threnetes niger
Rare hummingbird known only from French Guiana and adjacent areas of northern Brazil. Plumage is mostly dull grayish-green with a darker face and throat separated by a pale mustache stripe. It lacks the orange throat band and white tail markings of the otherwise similar Pale-tailed Barbthroat. Inhabits humid forest, especially scrubby clearings, forest edge, and along watercourses.
Guadalupe Murrelet
Synthliboramphus hypoleucus
Small black-and-white diving seabird, unlikely to be seen from land. Usually found as singles or pairs, well offshore, and not usually associating with other seabirds. Like most small alcids, dives when alarmed or takes off and flies straight away from the boat. Very similar to Scripps’s Murrelet (the two were once lumped as Xantus’s Murrelet), but white in face more extensive, such that eye stands out in a white area rather than merging into the black cap. Underwings bright white overall, like Scripps’s but unlike dusky underwings of Craveri’s Murrelet.
Collared Aracari
Pteroglossus torquatus
An attractive small toucan of tropical lowland forest and edge. Usually found in small groups moving through the canopy of fruiting trees or seen flying, one at a time, across clearings and between trees. Flight rather direct and fast, when long-tailed and long-billed shape is distinctive. Note the yellow body with red and black markings, and the serrated pattern on the big bill.
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