- Phrygilus patagonicus
Identification
Length 14½-15 cm. (5¾-6 in)
Male has russet back, bluish-grey hood with black lores. Wings blue-grey. Rump golden olive. Underparts are yellow, with white undertail coverts. Flanks washed tawny. Legs are pink. Red eye, cone-shaped gray bill. Female is similar but duller with a paler hood and olive back and greenish rump. Immature is similar to adult female, but has a faint whitish supercilium, becoming pale gray behind the eye. Faint dusky lateral throat stripe and short streaks on lower throat and upper breast. Underparts duller.
Similar Species
Similar to the Gray-hooded Sierra Finch but has less white on the underparts mainly restricted to the undertail coverts. Juveniles of these two species are extremely similar, but the Patagonian is distinguished by a less striking face pattern lacking a pale supercilium and bold submoustachial and malar stripes. Habitats differ with Patagonian Sierra-Finch in temperate forest and forest edge, while the Gray-hooded occurs in more open, steppe habitats.
Distribution
Central Chile to Patagonia and Argentina.
Taxonomy
This is a monotypic species[1]. They are not actually finches but now included in the Tanager family (Thraupidae). Taxonomic relationships are controversial. SACC had a proposal to reorganize these and related species, but it failed to be adopted.
Habitat
Forest and at forest edges.
Behaviour
Breeding
Breeds November to February. Nest is a cup made of grasses and lined with softer material, usually placed low down or on the ground among dense grass or other vegetation. Sometimes higher in Nothofagus tree cavities or in rock crevices. Clutch size is 2 to 4 pale blue green eggs with small purplish spots concentrated at the larger end.
Diet
Grass seeds, buds, flowers, fruit, insects, and other invertebrates such as arthropods. Southern Beech (Nothofagus pumilio) is heavily used. Patagonian Sierra-Finches eat its seeds, buds, flowers, and phloem sap. They also sip the nectar of Chilean firebush, Chilean needletree, Austral bellflower and hardy fuchsia. They are known to steal nectar from the latter by piercing the flower’s corolla.
Movements
Mostly sedentary but some move north after breeding,
Vocalisations
Song is a musical but repetitive series of short notes in alternating pairs: tweep-top tweep-top tweep-twop tweep-top. Call described as sharp teck or a dry tzep[2][4].
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Snowden, R., A. Jaramillo, and T. S. Schulenberg (2013). Patagonian Sierra-Finch (Phrygilus patagonicus), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.pasfin1.01
- Jaramillo, A. (2019). Patagonian Sierra-finch (Phrygilus patagonicus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/62030 on 26 January 2019).
- Jaramillo, A. 2003. Birds of Chile. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691117409
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Patagonian Sierra Finch. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 29 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Patagonian_Sierra_Finch
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
