SPARROWS AND FINCHES   -   EMBERIZIDAE   -   PART III

Yellow-thighed Finch Pselliophorus tibialis Bosque de Paz, Alajuela province, Costa Rica. A common bird in a limited range in the cloudforests of Costa Rica and Panama. (S5)

Large-footed Finch Pezopetes capitalis Trogon Lodge, San José province, Costa Rica. A monotypic genus endemic to the cloudforests of Costa Rica and Panama. (S5)

Santa Marta Brush-Finch Atlapetes melanocephalus El Dorado Lodge, Santa Marta Mountains, Magdalena department, Colombia. I think it's the most common endemic encountered on the San Lorenzo road in the Santa Marta mountains. These pretty birds are very curious and easy to see. This one was coming to the feeder at the lodge. (S6)

Pale-naped Brush-Finch Atlapetes pallidinucha papallactae Cerro Toledo, Loja province, Ecuador. (S5)

Yellow-headed Brush-Finch Atlapetes flaviceps Libano, Tolima department, Colombia. An oddly unpatterned brush-finch endemic to the Colombian Central Andes. (S5)

Tricolored Brush-Finch Atlapetes tricolor crassus Buenaventura reserve, El Oro province, Ecuador. This is the subspecies endemic to the Chocó region of western Ecuador and western Colombia. The nominate race is found on the east slope of the Andes in central and southern Peru, and has a yellow instead of tawny crown. There could be a future split here... (S5)

Slaty Brush-Finch Atlapetes schistaceus tamae Mountains east of Monteredondo, Meta department, Colombia. Often a common bird in high Andean forests from Venezuela to Peru. (S5)

White-winged Brush-Finch Atlapetes leucopterus leucopterus Tandayapa Bird Lodge, Pichincha province, Ecuador. This is mainly a bird of arid regions, but they seem to be inceasing in more humid cloudforest areas of NW Ecuador, such as here at Tandayapa. (S4)

Fulvous-headed Brush-Finch Atlapetes fulviceps Potrero de Yala Provincial Park, Jujuy province, Argentina. Found in mid-elevation yungas forests of the Andes of Bolivia and NW Argentina. (S6)

Yellow-striped Brush-Finch Atlapetes citrinellus Rio Sosa, Tucuman province, Argentina. A great little brush-finch endemic to a rather small area in the Andes of nothern Argentina. Those are impressive claws for a small bird! (D3)

Black-masked Finch Coryphaspiza melanotis melanotis Serra da Canastra NP, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. A very local and threatened species of grasslands of (mainly) central South America. (D3)

Pileated Finch Coryphospingus pileatus pileatus Serra da Canstra NP, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Male. When his crest is all the way down, the red can be difficult to see. (D3)		Pileated Finch Coryphospingus pileatus pileatus Chapada Diamantina, Bahia state, Brazil. Female. She lacks the red crest and usually shows some fain streaking on the breast. (D3)

Common Bush-Tanager Chlorospingus ophthalmicus wetmorei Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz state, Mexico. There is huge racial variation in Common Bush-Tanager, and I have just added the first two of what I hope to be many shots of the species. This first race is endemic to the Tuxtlas; it is similar to the nominate race, which I don't have a photo of yet. Note the white supraloral. (S5)

Common Bush-Tanager Chlorospingus ophthalmicus postocularis Tacaná volcano, San Marcos department, Guatemala. This one of the "postocularis group", found from southern Mexico to Panama. (S5)

Common Bush-Tanager Chlorospingus ophthalmicus regionalis Bosque de Paz, Alajuela province, Costa Rica. Another of the "postocularis group", and very similar to the previous one. (S5)

Dusky Bush-Tanager Chlorospingus semifuscus semifuscus Tandayapa Valley, Pichincha province, Ecuador. Feeding on Melastome berries. A Chocó endemic. (S4)

Sooty-capped Bush-Tanager Chlorospingus pileatus pileatus Trogon Lodge, San José province, Costa Rica. Endemic to the highlands of Costa Rica and Panama. (S5)

Yellow-throated Bush-Tanager Chlorospingus flavigularis marginatus Buenaventura reserve, El Oro province, Ecuador. (S5f)

Yellow-faced Grassquit Tiaris olivaceus pusillus El Ocote Biosphere Reserve, Chiapas state, Mexico. Male. (S5)

Yellow-faced Grassquit Tiaris olivaceus pusillus El Ocote Biosphere Reserve, Chiapas state, Mexico. Female. (S5)

Dull-colored Grassquit Tiaris obscurus pauper Finca Exito I, c. 20 km N of Puerto Quito, Pichincha province, Ecuador. A well-named bird, one of the plainest in all the Neotropics. A useful feature is the dusky upper mandible. (S5)

Sooty Grassquit Tiaris fuliginosus Reserva Ecologica de Guapi Assu, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Male. This species has an odd distribution, occurring in scattered sites from Colombia to S Brazil and NE Argentina. It seems to be common nowhere. It prefers edge of scrubby forest, often in bamboo. This male was singing and appeared to be defenfing a territory in a patch of non-native bamboo. (S6)

Gray Warbler-Finch Certhidea fusca mentalis Genovesa Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. The first of a series of Darwin's Finches that I photographed in Nov 2008 on a trip to the Galapagos Islands. A controversial split of Warbler Finch has been accepted by the SACC, despite the chairman of the committee and a world expert on Darwin's Finches voicing their dissent, see SACC prop 367.  (S5)

Mangrove/Woodpecker Finch Camarynchus sp. Punta Espinosa, Fernandina, Galapagos, Ecuador. Mangrove Finch C. heliobates has not been recorded on Fernandina Island since the early 1970's. These are photos of a bird we saw in the mangroves just across the channel from Playa Negra, a well-known site for Mangrove Finch on Isabela Island. The length of the bill and brownish plumage suggest that it could just be a Woodpecker Finch C. pallidus, but what is it doing in the mangroves? I thought Mangrove Finch was pretty much a Woodpecker Finch that had adapted to live in the mangroves. (S5)		Mangrove/Woodpecker Finch Camarynchus sp. Punta Espinosa, Fernandina, Galapagos, Ecuador.

Small Ground-Finch Geospiza fuliginosa Punta Moreno, Isabela Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. Male. There is significant variation in beak size among even the same species of Darwin's Finches. Compare this one to the female in the photo to the right. (S5)		Small Ground-Finch Geospiza fuliginosa Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. Female. (S5)

Medium Ground-Finch Geospiza fortis Charles Darwin Research Station, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. Male, on the left. The bird on the right is a female Small Ground-Finch G. fuliginosa. (S5)

Large Ground-Finch Geospiza magnirostris Genovesa Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. Female. Originally mis-ID'd as a Large Cactus-Finch, but the race of that species on Genovesa has a much narrower beak. Thanks to Rasmus Boegh for pointing this out. (S5)

Sharp-beaked Ground-Finch Geospiza difficilis difficilis Genovesa Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. Female. This is the ground-finch with the smallest distribution, found only on a few, mostly outlying islands of the archipelago. (S5)

Common Cactus-Finch Geospiza scandens intermedia Charles Darwin Research Station, Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador. Male. A well-named finch that is a specialist of prickly-pear (Opuntia) cactus. They are often seen probing the flowers, and frequently have the yellow, powdery pollen all over their face. (S5)

Common Cactus-Finch Geospiza scandens intermedia Charles Darwin Research Station, Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador. Female. (S5)

Large Cactus-Finch Geospiza conirostris conirostris Punta Suarez, Española Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. Male. This is the nominate race endemic to Española. It has a smaller beak and is similar to Medium Ground-Finch G. fortis, which is not know to occur on the island. (S5)

Large Cactus-Finch Geospiza conirostris conirostris Punta Suarez, Española Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. Female. It is not as tied to cacti as Common Cactus-Finch. (S5)

Many-colored Chaco-Finch Saltatricula multicolor El Tunal, Salta province, Argentina. Another neat bird, there's nothing else really quite like it, and it is uncertain what family it belongs to. It was singing, which why its head was lifted up like that. (D3)