Ashy-throated Chlorospingus (Chlorospingus canigularis)

Identification & Behavior: ~13.5 cm (5.3 in). The Ashy-throated Chlorospingus has yellow-olive upperparts and tail. The head is gray with a black bill, brown iris, and a white superciliary (only in signatus).  The throat is grayish. It has a broad yellow band across the breast and yellow on the sides, vent, and undertail coverts. It forages in groups along with mixed species flocks in the canopy and subcanopy of humid montane forest on the east slope and local on the west slope of the Andes. It is similar to the Common Chlorospingus but is distinguished by smaller size, a white superciliary, and a brown iris.

Status: The Ashy-throated Chlorospingus is fairly common but local in the canopy and sub-canopy of montane forests on the east slope of the Andes at elevations ranging between 1100-1850 m. It also occurs in humid forest of extreme northwest Peru in Tumbes. The Ashy-throated Chlorospingus also occurs in Co and Ec.

Name in Spanish: Chlorospingo de Garganta Ceniza.

Sub-species: Ashy-throated Chlorospingus (Chlorospingus canigularis paulus), J. T. Zimmer, 1947.  W slope of Andes from Ecuador (Chimborazo) S to NW Peru (Tumbes).
(C. c. signatus), Taczanowski and Berlepsch, 1885.  E slope from Ecuador (from Napo) S to Peru (Cajamarca, and spottily S to Cuzco).

Meaning of Name: Chlorospingus: Gr. khloros= green and spingos a form of spinos; probably identical to a spiza finch. canigularis: L. canus= grey and gularis, gula= throated, throat.

See more of the Family Passerellidae