Blue Seedeater
Amaurospiza concolor
Scarce and very local. A rather plain, easily overlooked, small seed-eating bird. Usually found as singles or pairs in association with seeding bamboo in forested areas, from lowlands to highlands, but mainly in foothills. In most of range the male is dull dark bluish overall (with slightly brighter highlights on shoulder), while the female is rich brown overall. In southwest Mexico, male is paler and more denim-blue; female is grayish brown. Note the grayish bill, which is smaller than bill of Blue Bunting, and subtly different in shape from bill of Varied Bunting. Listen for sharp metallic chips and sweet warbling song.
Identification
The blue seedeater is 11.5 to 14 cm (4.5 to 5.5 in) long and weighs 12 to 15 g (0.42 to 0.53 oz). The nominate male is entirely slate blue. The female's upperparts are cinnamon and the underparts tawny. The male A. c. relicta is more slaty (less blue) than the nominate and has black lores; the female is a paler cinnamon.<p>The songs and calls have been transcribed in several ways. A song from Chiapas, Mexico, is [1]. One from Panama is [2]. A call from Puebla, Mexico, is [3] and one from Panama is [4].
Taxonomy
The blue seedeater was formally described in 1861 by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis based on a specimen that had been collected in Costa Rica. Cabanis placed the species in a new genus Amaurospiza and coined the binomial name Amaurospiza concolor. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "uniform", "similar in colour" or "plain".<p>The blue seedeater was formerly considered to be conspecific with the Ecuadorian seedeater. Most authorities now treat the Ecuadorian seedeateras a separate species. This is based largely on the results of molecular phylogenetic studies that were published in 2014 and 2023. Confusingly, as of January 2024, BirdLife International uses the scientific name A. moesta for blue seedeater. The BirdLife account encompasses what are now the blue, Ecuadorian, and blackish-blue seedeaters.<p>Two subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Amaurospiza concolor
- Authority
- Cabanis, 1861
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Cardinalidae
- Genus
- Amaurospiza
Range and habitat
The nominate blue seedeater is found from Chiapas in southern Mexico through Central America to western and central Panama. A. c. relicta is found in six southwestern Mexico states, Jalisco, Colima, Morelos, Puebla, Guerrero and Oaxaca. The species inhabits openings in and edges of humid montane and secondary forest. It most often is found at sites with bamboo. In northern Central America it ranges in elevation from 600 to 2,500 m (2,000 to 8,200 ft) but in Costa Rica inhabits the narrower range of 1,700 to 2,200 m (5,600 to 7,200 ft).
Behavior
The blue seedeater's diet includes insects, seeds, and bamboo shoots.<p>The only known blue seedeater nest was found in Mexico. It was a cup of coarse grass lined with finer grass placed in the fork of a slender branch. It contained two seedeater eggs and one of the brood parasite bronzed cowbird (Molothrus aeneus).
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
West African Batis
Batis occulta
A classically patterned batis of forest, forest edges, villages, and towns in tropical lowlands and foothills. Males have white underparts bisected by a black chest band, mostly black upperparts with a broken white eye-line, white on the nape, scalloped white and gray on the back, and a white wingbar that extends to the tip of the wings in the secondary flight feathers. The female is similar but has less of an eyebrow, a grayer crown and back, and a reddish chest band. Overlaps with several other batis species, but note West African Batis’s combination of broken eyebrow and neat chest band. Song is a high-pitched series of buzzy calls and trills interspersed with whistles, often with the same whistled call being repeated at length.
Eastern Miombo Sunbird
Cinnyris manoensis
A medium-sized typical ‘double-collared’ sunbird. Larger and longer-billed than similar-plumaged Western Miombo Sunbird (and ranges hardly overlap); Eastern Miombo male has broader red breast band, darker gray belly, and less prominent yellow wingpit tufts. Female and immature have a gray-brown head, pale gray throat, and pale lemon breast and belly. Singles and pairs are residents and nomads in Miombo woodland, gallery forest, arid savanna, and other woodland. Sings a slower, louder, less rambling song than Western Miombo Sunbird that does not end in a long descending trill.
Inambari Gnatcatcher
Polioptila attenboroughi
Recently described, inconspicuous and rarely seen bird of rainforest canopy. Small and slender with a long tail; mostly dark gray with a broken white eyering, white belly, and white outer tail feathers. Inhabits canopy of tall forest, especially in regions with sandy soils. Usually seen with mixed-species flocks as it forages actively in outer foliage, sallying for insects and gleaning from leaves, moving long tail from side to side like other gnatcatchers. Thin and indistinct call notes are easily overlooked among calls of other species in flocks, but distinctive shape, active behavior, and long tail with extensive white should clinch identification. Extremely similar to other gnatcatchers of the Guianan Gnatcatcher complex, but no overlap in range. Distinguished from Tropical Gnatcatcher by uniform gray body plumage and lack of a black cap, and from Tooth-billed Wren by slimmer shape and smaller size, lacking any black barring in the plumage.
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