Finches, euphonias and allies | Fringillidae

Vinkachtigen | Fringílidos | Finches, euphonias and allies

In the area of this guide the family numbers 31 species in four genera, for the most part euphonias and chlorophonias of lowland and cloud forest, along with siskins of open country up into the páramo and puna. In the siskins the conical bill is the mark of the family: seed is not swallowed but husked, held in a groove in the palate while the lower mandible slides the coat off. The small, compact euphonias and chlorophonias, glossy blue-black, yellow or green, eat mainly berries instead, especially of mistletoe, whose seeds pass quickly and undamaged through the gut, so that the birds spread the plant. Outside the breeding season the siskins range in flocks over seed-rich fields, scrub and grassland, with a bounding flight and persistent contact calls that identify them at a distance. Unlike most songbirds, many species feed their young not on insects but on regurgitated food, seed in the siskins and fruit in the euphonias.