Tropeiro Seedeater
Sporophila beltoni
Plump seedeater with a thick yellow bill. Males are blue-gray with a paler vent and females are olive-brown. Found in tall grassland areas and open savanna near water. During the austral winter, migrates north to central Brazil.
Identification
The adult male is distinguished from the plumbeous seedeater by its larger size and bluish (rather than plumbeous) grey plumage, and from that and other Sporophila seedeaters, by having a robust, bright yellow beak with an arched culmen, and by vocalisations that include unique call notes.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Sporophila beltoni
- Authority
- Repenning & Fontana, 2013
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
- Genus
- Sporophila
Range and habitat
Tropeiro seedeaters breed in upland shrubby grasslands associated with the Araucaria forests of southern Brazil. They migrate northwards to spend the austral winter – the non-breeding season – in the Cerrado savannas of central Brazil. The range contains a narrow contact zone between the Tropeiro and plumbeous seedeaters, where the birds are segregated by habitat that contains little significant gene flow.
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Crested Jayshrike
Platylophus galericulatus
This dark, medium-sized bird would be fairly unremarkable were it not for the exceptionally long crest sticking vertically out of its head. Sumatran and Bornean birds are brown, while birds on Java and the Malay Peninsula are black. Blocky white crescent behind the eye flashes as the bird moves through dense foliage in lowland and foothill broadleaf forests. Raucous; most commonly gives noisy rattles, also whistles and chips.
Common Buzzard
Buteo buteo
Commonest large hawk in many areas, often seen soaring. Favors woodland and forest edge, farmland with hedges; locally in towns with larger trees and wooded parks. Also hunts over open country, especially moorland and rough grassland. Mainly seen as singles or pairs, circling over fields and woodlands with wings slightly raised. Rather stocky hawk with broad wings and fairly short, square-tipped tail (rounded when spread). Plumage variable but typically has paler breast band, fine dark tail barring (broad dark tail tip on adult).
Malaysian Honeyguide
Indicator archipelagicus
Uncommon and unobtrusive in lowland and foothill forests. Unremarkable yet distinctive in its appearance: olive brown above and pale below with a bicolored bill, somewhat resembling a large-bodied, small-headed sparrow in structure if not in size. Male has yellow edges on the wings and a blood-red eye; female lacks these yellow areas and has a duller brownish eye. Gives a nasal “nyeh!” as well as an odd, low grating trill. Forages at beehives, consuming beeswax like its more well-known relatives.
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