Chestnut-throated Seedeater (Sporophila telasco)

Identification & Behavior: ~10.5 cm (4.1 in). The breeding male Chestnut-throated Seedeater has bluish gray upperparts. The throat is chestnut with white on the rest of the underparts. The bill is black.  The female has brown upperparts streaked and mottled with dusky. The underparts are brownish with faint brown streaking on the breast. The non-breeding male has a dull plumage with little chestnut on the throat and brown bill.  The juvenile and the female in fresh plumage have warm brown to buff shades on the breast and back. Both sexes show a white wing speculum. It forages in open areas with scattered shrubs as well in grasslands, fallow agricultural fields, and river edges. It is similar to the Drab Seedeater but is distinguished by smaller size, chestnut throat, no white wing bars, and no white wing speculum. Also, see Dull-colored Grassquit.

Status: The Chestnut-throated Seedeater is common along the coastal lowland and also the Marañon Drainage where it is known to range up to 700 m along the foothill of the Andes. It also occurs in Co, Ec, and Ch.

Name in Spanish: Espiguero de Garganta Castaña.

Sub-species: Chestnut-throated Seedeater (Sporophila telasco), (Lesson), 1828.

Meaning of Name: Sporophila: Gr. sporos= seed and philos= lover. telasco: Telasco, an Inca warrior in Jean François Marmontel’s novel ‘Les Incas, ou la destruction de l’Empire du Pérou’.

See more of the Family Thraupidae