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Ashy-throated Chlorospingus | Chlorospingus canigularis
Grijskeeltangare | Clorospingo gorjigrís | Clorospingo-de-garganta-cinza
The Ashy-throated Chlorospingus is a small chlorospingus of the lower mountain slopes in the northern Andes, from Colombia to northern Peru. It has a pale grey throat and a bright olive-yellow breast band, and keeps more to the canopy than related species. Small groups often form the core of mixed flocks.
Voice
High, thin tsit calls, and as song a soft, fast series of high notes, often from the treetops.
Recording: Daan van der Hoeven — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm, with a pointed, dark bill. The crown and cheeks are grey, sometimes with an olive wash; there is no white spot behind the eye. The throat is pale grey to whitish, the breast has a broad olive-yellow band, the belly is whitish and the flanks are olive-grey. The upperparts are olive-green. The iris is dark. The sexes are alike. Juveniles are duller, with a less distinct breast band.
Confusion species
Common Chlorospingus Chlorospingus flavopectus usually has a white spot behind the eye and a speckled throat, and often lives higher and lower in the forest. Yellow-throated Chlorospingus Chlorospingus flavigularis has a bright yellow throat and a grey breast. Yellow-whiskered Chlorospingus Chlorospingus parvirostris has a yellow malar stripe and a pale iris. Superciliaried Hemispingus Thlypopsis superciliaris has a white supercilium and yellow underparts.
Habitat
Humid montane forest and foothill forest, especially in the canopy and at forest edges, also tall secondary forest, roughly between 1000 and 2000 m. It searches among leaves and on branches for insects and small fruits, mostly in small groups within mixed flocks. The nest is a cup of moss and fibres.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia on the slopes of all three Andean ranges, locally also in the Serranía de Perijá. In Ecuador on both slopes of the Andes. In Peru only in the north. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Costa Rica, Panama and western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Look up into mixed flocks along roads through the lower montane forests; the groups often move higher in the trees than other chlorospinguses. Watch for the pale grey throat and the olive-yellow breast band.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is locally common and tolerates forest edges and secondary forest.
Scientific name
Chlorospingus canigularis | (de Lafresnaye, 1848)
De Lafresnaye described the species in 1848 as Tachyphonus canigularis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Chlorospingus was introduced in 1851 by Cabanis. The genus name combines Greek khlōros, 'green', with spingos, a small bird, perhaps the chaffinch. The species name comes from Latin canus, 'grey', and gularis, 'of the throat': grey-throated. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bogotá, Colombia.