From Opus

Male
Photo by Richard Fray
St. Lucia, February 2004

Loxigilla noctis

Includes Barbados Bullfinch

[edit] Identification

Overall black to slate-gray color, interrupted by rufous on the throat, just in front of eye, and in most races on undertail coverts. The female is a sandy gray-brown with rufous coloring to the wings and tail and greyish underparts. The head of the female is the same color as the mantle. Legs in both sexes are greyish to black, not pink.

[edit] Similar species

In St. Lucia, the St. Lucia Black Finch is a species that could be mistaken for Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, however, the black finch has pink legs (more prominent in the male), a heavier beak, has a habit of bobbing its tail up and down, and are more often found low in dense vegetation. The male is entirely without rufous, while the female has gray on its head in contrast to brown back.

[edit] Distribution

Photo of a Barbados Bullfinch by Dave B Smith
Photographed in Barbados.
Females of other populations look similar to this.

Used to be endemic to the Lesser Antilles but has now spread to the US Virgin Islands (part of the Puerto Rico bank) and is a vagrant to Puerto Rico. It is absent from the Grenadines but present on Grenada.

[edit] Taxonomy

A reassignment of this and similar species to the tanagers have been proposed, but it is currently placed in the Emberizidae.

The Lesser Antillean Bullfinch is divided into eight subspecies. Clements and the AOU have split the Barbados form as Loxigilla barbadensis, Barbados Bullfinch. The basis for the split is that the Barbados birds have no male plumage type; just a drab brown plumage as females on the other islands.

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

• L. n. coryi:

• Lesser Antilles (St. Kitts and Montserrat)

• L. n. ridgwayi:

• Lesser Antilles (Anguilla, St. Martin, Barbuda and Antigua)

• L. n. desiradensis:

• Désirade Island (Lesser Antilles)

• L. n. dominicana:

• Guadeloupe, Marie Galante, Dominica and Iles des Saintes

• L. n. noctis:

• Martinique (Lesser Antilles)

• L. n. sclateri:

• St. Lucia (Lesser Antilles)

• L. n. crissalis:

• St. Vincent (Lesser Antilles)

• L. n. grenadensis:

• Grenada (Lesser Antilles)

[edit] Habitat

Dense and semi-open vegetation, often around houses.

[edit] Behaviour

Often incredibly tame, well known for stealing nuts and sugar in outdoor restaurants.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.

• List of references

[edit] External Links