Grayish Saltator
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| Saltator coerulescens (Vieillot, 1817) |
The Grayish Saltator, Saltator coerulescens, is a seedeating bird in the cardinal family. On average it is 20 cm long and weighs 52 g. The plumage depends on age and subspecies, but in general this bird has gray or grayish-olive upperparts, a white stripe over the eye, a narrow white throat, a gray breast and a buff or cinnamon belly.
The common call is a long-drawn upward slur, ch'wheeet or ch'kweeee, sometimes with a more elaborate beginning, as hi'whee chu weeeeh (Howell and Webb 1994)—compare the Salvadoran vernacular name dichoso fui[1]. The song is a warble, usually fairly short, varying from nasal to mellow.
This species occurs in Mexico, Central America and South America, from Colombia south to Peru and northern Argentina in open woodland, plains and scrub. There are 13 subspecies, several of which are considered as full species by some authors, mainly on the basis of vocalisations [2].
Two or three blue eggs are laid in a bulky cup nest 2–4 m high in a tree.
The Grayish Saltator feeds on fruit, buds and slow-moving insects. It forages at low and mid levels, sometimes with mixed species flocks that may include other saltators.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Saltator coerulescens. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- ffrench, Richard (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago, 2nd edition, Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2.
- Hilty, Birds of Venezuela, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
- Steve N. G. Howell and Sophie Webb (1994). A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-854012-4.
- Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica ISBN 0-8014-9600-4
[edit] External links
- Photograph from the Salvadoran Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources
- List of the birds of El Salvador (in Spanish)
- Bird song display list with .wav file of call
- Grayish Saltator videos on the Internet Bird Collection
