Slate-colored Grosbeak
Saltator grossus
Stunning grosbeak, entirely slaty gray with striking white throat and thick bright red bill. Female similar but with duller orange bill. Found singly or in pairs, usually at middle levels in forests or edges, often following a mixed-species flock. Listen for the sweet, simple whistled song.
Taxonomy
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the slate-coloured grosbeak in the supplement to his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in "America". He used the French name Le gros-bec bleu d'Amérique and the Latin name Coccothraustes americana caerulea. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson in his Ornithologie. One of these was the slate-coloured grosbeak. Linnaeus included a terse description, coined the binomial name Loxia grossa and cited Brisson's work. The specific name grossa, grossus is Latin for "thick", "rough" or "coarse". The type locality has been restricted to French Guiana. This species is now placed in the genus Saltator that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816.
- Scientific name
- Saltator grossus
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1766)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
- Genus
- Saltator
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Large lark with a strong, thick bill and an obvious pale eyebrow. Thick black patches at the neck sides can vary with posture and between individuals. In flight, dark underwings with white trailing edge to upperwings are diagnostic. "Slow-motion" wingbeats in song flight make it look bigger than it is. An inhabitant of open farmland and natural steppe. May form large flocks in winter. Jumbled song consists of trills and chips, and frequently mimics other species.
Monte Yellow-Finch
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Small yellow terrestrial finch-like tanager of the Monte desert of central Argentina. Distinguished from most other Yellow-finches by its uniform bright yellow underparts, and from Saffron Finch by Monte Yellow-Finch’s larger bill and lack of orange in forecrown.
Masked Gnatcatcher
Polioptila dumicola
Bold patterned gnatcatcher usually found in the canopy of savanna, open woodlands, and forest edges where it may join mixed-species flocks. Largely grayish overall with a white-edged black tail. Males have a black mask while females have a small black ear patch on a generally pale face. Males of the subspecies from Northwest Brazil are whiter below and grayish in other populations.
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