New World sparrows | Passerellidae

Amerikaanse gorzen | Chingolos | New World sparrows

The sparrows of the New World: seed-eaters with a short conical bill, sturdy legs and a fairly long, rounded tail, mostly brown and streaked above. Many species feed on the ground in leaf litter and under shrubs, using a way of scratching typical of the family: both feet kicked backwards at once in a short hop, so that the litter flies away and seeds and insects are exposed. In the streaked species identification turns mainly on the head pattern: crown stripes, supercilium, eye-stripe and malar stripe in fixed patterns. The nest is a small cup on the ground or low in a shrub. Since about 2017 they have been placed in a family of their own, separate from the Emberizidae. In the Andes and along the west coast the family numbers 59 species in nine genera. The brushfinches of Atlapetes reach their greatest diversity here, with many species each confined to a small stretch of the slopes, in cloud forest, forest edge and scrub up to the páramo; Arremon lives in the undergrowth of lowland and montane forest, and the Chlorospingus species, unlike the rest, move through the canopy in small flocks. Rufous-collared Sparrow is found in open country everywhere, from villages and fields to high in the Andes, Tumbes Sparrow belongs to the dry scrub of the Tumbesian region of Ecuador and Peru, and Tanager Finch lives in cloud forest in Colombia and Ecuador. A few northern species reach the region as rare winter visitors.