Bulletin 288 - Colombia #11 - Sparrows

Pablo Florez, the main guide, has co-written a book where to bird in Colombia. In it, he has a list of the Top 30 Most Sought-after Birds by a group of 40 birders visiting Colombia. I saw 12 of them on the trip and got photos of 10. When I show one of these birds,  I will mention its placement on the list.

I know that a list of sparrows does not seem very exciting to those of us in North America where most of the sparrows are just Little Brown Jobs or LBJs as popularly known. But the tropical birds can be quite colorful and most are not called 'sparrows'.

The 7" Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch (Arremon brunneinucha) has a black face, white throat, chestnut cap and olive back.

Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch

His cousin, the 7" Gray-browed Brush-Finch (Arremon assimilis) has a black face with gray eye stripe and olive back.

Gray-browed Brush-Finch

And a third in the same genus is the 6" Olive Finch (Arremon castaneiceps). it is a very attractive bird with a gray head, rufous crown and yellow-olive body.

Olive Finch

The 7" White-naped Brush-Finch (Altapetes albinucha) has a black face, olive back, white neck, and underparts and a yellow throat. Here a pair were side by side.

White-naped Brush-Finch

His cousin is the 7" Pale-naped Brush-Finch (Altapetes pallidnucha). It is another attractive sparrow with its black face, rufous forehead, white nape and bright yellow underparts.

Pale-naped Brush-Finch

Another in the same genus is the 7" Tricolored Brush-Finch (Altapetes tricolor).It has yellow underparts, black face and a rufous crown.

Tricolored Brush-Finch

And a fourth is the 7" Slaty Brush-Finch  (Altapetes schistaceus). It is most gray with a black face and rufous crown.

Slaty Brush-Finch

The only bird called a sparrow was a pair of Rufous-collared Sparrows (Zonotrichia capensis) who were feeding a huge Shiny Cowbird baby.

Rufous-collared Sparrow
feeding Shiny Cowbird

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2017 David McDonald

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