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Sooty Grassquit Asemospiza fuliginosus
(aka Tiaris fuliginosus)
Brazilian name: cigarra-do-coqueiro |
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The Sooty Grassquit is found in several disjunct areas: Colombia,
northern Venezuela and Trinidad, south-east Venezuela and neighbouring Guiana, eastern Brazil near the coast and central Mato Grosso. See the distribution map at xeno-canto.
It inhabits forest and woodland edges as well as clearings and grassy scrub and seems very fond of seeding bamboo.
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It looks very similar to Blue-black Grassquit
Volatinia jacarina but the male is less glossy black and more sooty black.
The female is dull olive brown above and brighter olive-brown below moving to whitish in the centre of the belly but is very difficult to identify if
not accompanied by a male. |
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Photo 5, taken at Boa Nova, Bahia, at 6:10 am with flash does not really show the subtlety of the colouring
and is a bit confusing. Both Nacho Areta and Rick Simpson have questioned the id but Jeremy Minns recorded the same bird, see recording below, and the song is definitely
of Sooty Grassquit. Nacho felt that the bill shape, colour and jizz of the bird was more like Uniform
Finch Haplospiza unicolor so it is obviously not a typical looking bird.
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Note, however, that the Sooty Grassquit has a reddish gape and that the legs are black while the Uniform Finch
has no hint of colour around the gape and has pinkish legs and feet.
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