Yellow-faced Grassquit
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| Tiaris olivacea (Linnaeus, 1766) |
The Yellow-faced Grassquit, Tiaris olivacea, is a passerine bird which breeds from central Mexico to Colombia and northwestern Venezuela, and also on the Greater Antilles. It is a vagrant to the United States and has been introduced to Hawaii
It is a common to abundant resident in lowlands and foothills up to 2300 m altitude in semi-open areas such as roadsides, pasture, weedy fields, low scrub and gardens. It sometimes forms loose flocks with other emberizid finches.
The globular nest, built by the female, is made of grass and weed stems and lined with finer material. It has a side entrance and is placed usually less than 30 cm above the ground, often on a grassy bank. This species sometimes forms loose colonies. The clutch is two or three brown-speckled white eggs, which are incubated by the female alone for 12-14 days to hatching.
The Yellow-faced Grassquit is a small bird with a conical bill, sharper than that of the related seedeaters. It is 10.0-10.7 cm long and weighs 9.5-10.0 g. The adult male has an olive-green back, and its face and breast are black apart from a bright yellow throat, supercilia, and lower eyelid spot. The rest of the underparts are greyish olive.
The adult female is dull olive-green above and paler grey below, and may have some dark breast smudges. The face pattern is much weaker and duller, and may be almost invisible. Young birds are like the adult female but duller and greyer. Young males begin to acquire full adult plumage in their first year.
The Yellow-faced Grassquit has a weak buzzing trilled ttttt-tee call. The male vibrates his wings as he sings to the female from only a few centimetres away.
This species feeds mainly on grass seeds, but also takes other seeds, berries and some insects.
[edit] References
- Hilty, Birds of Venezuela, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
- Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica, ISBN 0-0814-9600-4
