Streaky Seedeater
Crithagra striolata
Medium-sized brown, heavily streaked seedeater. Note the boldly marked face with one dark brown mark across the ears and another below the bill. The distinctive subspecies found in southern Tanzania and Malawi has a yellow wash across the face. Generally common at middle and high elevations in a variety of open habitats including gardens, cultivation, scrub, heath, and forest edge. Gives a pretty, musical up-and-down song that is more like a thrush’s than a typical seedeater’s. Also gives a distinctive, high-pitched “seeeiiu” call. Similar to Reichard’s Seedeater, but has a different facial pattern, with a pale mark below the eye.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Crithagra striolata
- Authority
- (Rüppell, 1840)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Fringillidae
- Genus
- Crithagra
Range and habitat
In the Degua Tembien mountains, the bird was found to be a breeding resident of woodland edges, scrubland and forest edges.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Townsend's Shearwater
Puffinus auricularis
Endangered, small black-and-white shearwater, endemic to Mexico. Found around Socorro Island mainly from November to May, and rarely offshore between Jalisco and Oaxaca. It is usually found with feeding flocks of other shearwaters, boobies, and terns. Flight is fast and strong, wheeling fairly high in strong winds. Blackish above and white below with blackish undertail coverts, fairly long tail, and white patches or saddlebags that wrap up around the base of the tail. Similar species: Black-vented Shearwater is dark brownish above without the strong black cap of Townsend’s.
Fulvous-dotted Treerunner
Margarornis stellatus
A uniquely-marked little Furnariid. Very uncommon in restricted range on the west slope of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador. Mostly bright orange-rufous with a dazzling white throat that bleeds down into bold speckles on upper breast. Singles or pairs forage with mixed-species flocks, usually hitching along mossy branches in the middle to upper levels. Occurs in humid mossy forest from around 1,200–2,200 m, typically at lower elevations than Pearled Treerunner.
Striated Laughingthrush
Grammatoptila striata
With its short bill and loose, bushy crest, this laughingthrush resembles a dark, rather unmarked barwing. Brown overall with pencil-thin white lines all over the body. Crest is dark brown, and wings are dull rufous. Inhabits forests and adjoining areas with dense undergrowth in the Himalayan foothills. Like many other laughingthrushes, highly social and often found in flocks, which keep in contact with calls ranging from harsh screeches to hooting. Often gives a series of repeated loud, upslurred notes.
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