Red Siskin
Spinus cucullatus
A small bird with a unique color pattern. Red-and-black plumage of male is diagnostic; female is salmon-pink and gray. Found in a variety of habitats across its range, including savanna bush islands, forest edge, and disturbed humid premontane forest, but it is generally absent from humid lowland forest regions. Feeds on seeds and fruit, often associating with euphonias. May wander widely and can be difficult to find; population has been greatly reduced by trapping for the cage bird trade. Song is a jumbled series of high-pitched notes, trills, and buzzes; most readily detected by high, clear call note.
识别特征
The red siskin is about 10 cm long. The male is mainly deep red, with black on the head, throat, flight feathers and tail tip, and a whitish lower belly and under tail. The female is grey on the head, breast, and upper parts, apart from a red rump and upper tail. The breast is grey with reddish flanks, and the rest of the underparts, the wings and tail resemble the corresponding areas of the male. Immature females are paler than the adults, and immature males are brown rather than red.
分类信息
- 学名
- Spinus cucullatus
- 命名信息
- (Swainson, 1820)
- 目
- Passeriformes
- 科
- Fringillidae
- 属
- Spinus
分布与栖息地
It is native to tropical South America - in northern Colombia, northern Venezuela (where it is called the "cardenalito") and Guyana. It was common in the early 20th century, occurring throughout the foothills of northern Venezuela, but has now become extremely rare in a fragmented range. The population on Trinidad is believed to be extirpated, with no sightings since 1960. An introduced population derived from escaped cagebirds in Puerto Rico has since thought to become extinct.
- 迁徙
- Resident species
行为
The red siskin is found in open country, forest edges and grassland with trees or shrubs. The female is believed to lay three greenish-white eggs in a grassy cup nest in a tree. Red siskins eat seeds and are highly gregarious. When they were more numerous, they formed semi-nomadic flocks.
保护状况
This siskin has been illegally trapped for the cage bird trade and endangered by environmental factors. Domestication has probably been responsible for the continuation of the species, which might otherwise be extinct. This is an attractive finch with a pleasant song, and its unique coloration for a small finch has led to it being used for interbreeding with domestic canaries to produce varieties with red in the plumage.<p>The red siskin is listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List and nationally critically endangered in Venezuela. It is listed on CITES Appendix I. The greatest threat to the species has been intense illegal trapping for the bird trade since the 1940s, however the species also faces extensive habitat loss. Some hope has been given to this highly endangered species by the discovery in 2003 of a population of several thousand birds in southern Guyana, 1000 km from any previously known colony. Otherwise, the world population is believed to be between 600-6,000 pairs.<p>Researchers at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute lead a program, the Red Siskin Initiative, with the goals of uncovering more about this species and preventing its extinction. The National Aviary in Pittsburgh, PA has a captive breeding program for the species.
- 种群趋势
- declining
照片
分布
鸟叫声
其他鸟类
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Picumnus aurifrons
Small, greenish-brown piculet. Light olive brown, with horizontal barring on the breast changing to vertical streaking on the belly, and a black-and-white speckled crown. Males have a yellow forehead patch. Forages singly or in pairs around the midstory and canopy of secondary rainforest, sometimes joining mixed-species flocks with tanagers and other species. Its song is a high, two- or three-note “sweet, sweet,” similar to the songs of other piculets.
Mount Kupe Bushshrike
Chlorophoneus kupeensis
A grayish bushshrike with green wings and tail and a unique head pattern: the black mask curls down to form a narrow black breast band surrounding the white throat. Some morphs have a purple dot at the base of the throat. Juvenile has less distinct face pattern than adult. A rare resident, restricted to a handful of sites in the Cameroon-Nigeria highlands, where it is found singly and in pairs in the canopy of primary hill forest between 930 and 1550 meters of elevation. Calls include an electric grating “cha-cha-cha-chggrrt-chggrrt-chggrrt” like a laser-gun sound effect in a computer game, as well as harsh croaking, whistles, and ticks. May snap wings when agitated.
Mariana Fruit-Dove
Ptilinopus roseicapilla
A spectacularly colorful dove with a bright green body, an orange belly, a dark chest band, a bright silver neck and chest, a slim white eyebrow, and a striking magenta forehead. Wings have dark splodges on them. Unique within its range. Call is a typical dove-like cooing, slow at the start and end, rapidly bubbling in the middle.
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