White-faced Ground-Sparrow
Melozone biarcuata
Rather local large sparrow of foothills and highlands in Chiapas and northern Central America. Found in brushy woodland and edge and overgrown clearings; usually on or near the ground and often in pairs. Like other ground-sparrows, spends most of its time skulking in shady and often dense cover. Head pattern is distinctive: rusty cap, white face with a beady dark eye, and dark sideburn patch.
Identification
Prevost's ground sparrow is on average 15 cm long and weighs 28 g. The adult has a stubby dark-grey bill, unstreaked olive-brown upperparts, a rufous crown and mainly white underparts. Young birds are browner above, have yellower underparts, and a duller indistinct head pattern. It has a simple head pattern in which the rufous of the crown extends down the sides of the neck as a half collar behind the white face.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Melozone biarcuata
- Authority
- (Prévost & des Murs, 1842)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Passerellidae
- Genus
- Melozone
Range and habitat
This bird breeds at middle altitudes from southern Mexico to western Honduras. The Cabanis's ground sparrow was previously considered a subspecies. It is found typically at altitudes between 600 and 1600 m in the undergrowth and thickets of semi-open woodland, coffee plantations, hedgerows and large gardens.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Usually found in pairs, the bird is a shy species best seen at or near dusk. They sometimes venture in the open in the early morning.<p>The nest, built by the female, is a neat lined cup constructed less than 2 m up in a bush or large tussock. The female lays a clutch of two or three ruddy-blotched white eggs, which she incubates for 12–14 days. The male helps in feeding the chicks. This species is sometimes parasitised by the bronzed cowbird.<p>The bird feeds on the ground on seeds, fallen berries, insects and spiders.<p>Calls include a thin tsit or a clearer psee. The male's song, given from a hidden perch in the wet season, is a whistled pst’t’t’t peer peer peer whee whee whee.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Blackthroat
Calliope obscura
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Pale Flycatcher
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Fairly large, long-tailed, very plain flycatcher. Note the grayish underparts and unstreaked crown. Found in moist savanna and broadleaved woodland, including miombo. Sits in the midstory for long periods, occasionally flying out to grab an insect on the wing or on the ground. Call is a dry “cheeyp”, and song is a quick, scrambled series of similar notes. Unlike Marico Flycatcher, has dusky underparts, and unlike Grayish Flycatcher, has an unstreaked crown.
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Small gray and rufous tanager of open thorn forest and scrubby desert in central and northern Argentina and southern Uruguay. Both sexes from similar Black-and-chestnut and Black-and-rufous Warbling-Finches by the rufous supercilium and malar not contrasting with the throat in Cinnamon Warbling-Finch.
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