Orangequit
Euneornis campestris
A small inhabitant of moist woodlands where it feeds on nectar and fruit. Note the short and slightly down-curved bill. Males are glossy plumbeous blue with a brick-orange throat but can appear black in poor lighting. Females have a warm brown back that contrasts with a deep gray crown. The Jamaican Euphonia is superficially similar, but has a stubby bill and a greenish back. Vocalizations include a high, thin “tsit-tsit,” with the second note louder and higher in pitch, plus a thin, descending whistled “tsee-uh.”
Taxonomy
The orangequit was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Motacilla campestris. Linnaeus based his description on the "American Hedge-Sparrow" that George Edwards had described and illustrated in his 1750 work, A Natural History of Uncommon Birds, from a specimen collected in Jamaica. The species was moved to the genus Euneornis by the Austrian zoologist Leopold Fitzinger in 1856. The genus name Euneornis combines the Ancient Greek eu meaning "good" with the genus Neornis introduced by Edward Blyth in 1845 and now a junior synonym of Cettia. The specific epithet campestris is Latin and means "of the fields". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.<p>Its common name is derived from its orange throat and the English word quit, which refers to small passerines of tropical America; cf. grassquit, bananaquit.
- Scientific name
- Euneornis campestris
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Spindalidae
- Genus
- Euneornis
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Malabar Pied-Hornbill
Anthracoceros coronatus
A large black-and-white hornbill with a huge bill and casque. The plumage is almost entirely black, but for the white on the belly and the sides of the throat. Sexes are alike, except that the female has a white patch around the eye. In flight, note the white tail with a black tip, and the black wings with a thin white bar in the middle and a thick white edge. It inhabits evergreen and deciduous forests and forest edges. Calls include loud and often maniacal-sounding clucking and braying.
Blackcap Babbler
Turdoides reinwardtii
A mostly brownish babbler with a black head and a white eye. The underparts are pale in the west and become increasingly darker in the eastern part of the range. Found in moist woodland, dense savanna, scrub, gallery forest, forest edge, cultivated areas, and gardens. Almost always in groups, which feed by hopping across the ground. Similar in behavior, shape, size, and overall brown coloration to Brown Babbler, but easily separated by the black head and the lack of a contrastingly paler rump. Calls include a raspy babbling, nasal calls, and a dry clucking, all usually given by a whole group in chorus.
Southern Citril
Crithagra hyposticta
Small seedeater with a sharp bill and forked tail. The upperparts are olive-green and the underparts pale yellow with some streaking. Males and females are similar. Found at middle and high elevations in a variety of habitats, including forest edge, gardens, cultivation, moist scrub, and woodland. Usually in small flocks. The song is a fast jumble of high-pitched twitters and whistles. Similar to Western Citril, but there is virtually no overlap in range, and further separated by the lack of a strong pale eyebrow, and the lack of a black face on the male.
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