Slender-billed Finch
Xenospingus concolor
Long-tailed, often rather skulking “finch” (actually a tanager) of scrub, hedges, and riverside thickets in desert lowlands, where no very similar species are found. Adult blue-gray overall with slender, bright yellow bill, and yellow legs; tail often held cocked. Immature looks very different: streaky overall with white eyering and slender yellow bill (darker on youngest birds). Voice notably varied: chips, clucks, and chatters usually given from cover.
Taxonomy
The slender-billed finch was formally described in 1837 by the French naturalists Alcide d'Orbigny and Frédéric de Lafresnaye under the binomial name Sylvia concolor. They specified the type location as the city of Arica which was then in Peru and is now in northern Chile. The slender-billed finch is the only species placed in the genus Xenospingus that was introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1867. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek xenos meaning 'strange' or 'different' with spingos meaning 'finch'. The specific epithet concolor is Latin for 'uniform', 'similar in colour' or 'plain'. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.<p>A molecular phylogenetic study of the tanagers published in 2014 found that the slender-billed finch was a member of the subfamily Poospizinae and was most closely related to the cinereous finch (Piezorina cinerea).
- Scientific name
- Xenospingus concolor
- Authority
- (d'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thraupidae
- Genus
- Xenospingus
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Uniform buffy-brown owl with dark eyes. Mottled brown and white above and lightly barred on the breast. Found in montane, lowland humid and second growth, preferring areas with dense understory. Both sexes give a high-pitched meow and low harsh “grugrugru, grugrugru.”
Regent Whistler
Pachycephala schlegelii
A medium-sized bird of montane forest and subalpine shrubland. Female is mainly olive with a yellow belly, dark gray head and pale gray, grizzled throat. Male has a black head and chest, white throat, yellow patch on the back of the head and yellow underparts. Male, similar to other male whistlers but has orange wash on the lower chest. Female similar to Lorentz’s Whistler but female Regent has an olive rather than gray chest. Voice, a rising buzz followed by 3 to 4 explosive “whip!” notes.
Bronze Parotia
Parotia berlepschi
A fairly large, short-tailed bird of mid-mountane forest canopy in the Foja Mountains. Male is mainly black with white flanks, bronzy-scaled chest and 6 antennalike feathers projecting from the back of the head. Note the blue eye. The female is dull brown above with rufous in the wing, strongly-barred underparts and pale bands above and below the eye. The male dances at a terrestrial display court. There are no other similar birds-of-paradise that co-occur. Vocalizations include loud rasps, rattles or a single or double-note squeak “wi-dik!”.
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