Thick-billed Euphonia - BirdForum Opus

Male, E.l. crassirostris
Photo © by michha62
El Valle, Panama, December 2009

Euphonia laniirostris

Identification

Female
Photo © by juninho
Inca Pueblo Hotel, Machu Picchu, Peru, 20 October 2005

4" (10 cm)
Male: Dark blue with solid yellow underparts and yellow on forecrown to the rear of eye or beyond; black on side of head, the blue areas can also look black in bad light.
Female olive above, yellow below, with olive wash on breast. Thicker bill than other euphonias but hardly noticeable in the field. Legs dark on both sexes.
Immature male develops dark in the head before changing color of back.

Variation: in subspecies crassirostris the entire crown of the male is yellow; in subspecies melanura the yellow areas of the male shows a more orange color

Similar species

All members of genus Euphonia, but especially those which have yellowish underside and lack dark throat such as Yellow-throated Euphonia or Violaceous Euphonia

Distribution

Central and South America: Central America: found in Costa Rica and Panama
South America: Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Five subspecies are recognized¹:

• E.l. crassirostris:

• Costa Rica to northern Colombia and northern Venezuela

• E.l. melanura:

• East Colombia to eastern Ecuador, northern Peru and western Amazonian Brazil

• E.l. hypoxantha:

• West Ecuador and north-western Peru

• E.l. zopholega:

• Tropical east-central Peru (Junín and Cuzco)

• E.l. laniirostris:

• East Bolivia and adjacent south-western Brazil

Clements checklist states that the first two subspecies (Black-tailed) are recognizably different from the rest (the true Thick-billed).

Habitat

Shrubby areas and forest edges in lowlands to lower foothills. In many areas described as occurring below 1200 m, but in Ecuador seems to go as high as 2100 m.

Behaviour

Mostly in small flocks often seen feeding on mistletoe.

• 

  Immature male
  Photo © by olivewarbler
  Montenegro, Quindío, Colombia, 28 March 2010

• 

  Male of a form with orangey underside
  Photo © by Pantanal1
  Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil

• 

  Photo © by Stanley Jones
  North of Tarapoto, San Martín, Peru, December 2016

References

1. Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Ridgely & Gwynne 1989. Birds of Panama. Princeton Paperbacks. ISBN 0691025126
3. Restall et al. 2006. Birds of Northern South America. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300124156
4. Ber van Perlo. 2009. A field guide to the Birds of Brazil. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-530155-7

External Links

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