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Plain-colored Seedeater | Catamenia inornata
Bruingrijze catamenia | Semillero sencillo | Papa-capim-liso
The Plain-colored Seedeater is a medium-sized seedeater of grassland with shrubs in the highlands, from Colombia to Bolivia. The male is grey with a pink bill and a chestnut vent, but without conspicuous markings. It lives higher and in more open terrain than the Band-tailed Seedeater.
Voice
The song is a short series of harsh notes followed by a dry, buzzy trill, often from a shrub. The call is a short, soft chip.
Recording: Eduardo Quintanilla — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14 cm, with a short, thick, pink bill. The male is grey, brownish grey above with dark streaks on the back, plain pale grey below with a brownish tinge, and has a chestnut vent. The tail is plain, without a white band. The female is buffy brown, streaked above and below, with a paler rusty vent and a horn-coloured to pink bill. Young birds resemble the female.
Confusion species
Band-tailed Seedeater Catamenia analis is smaller, with a white band in the tail, a yellowish bill and, in the male, black around the bill. Paramo Seedeater Catamenia homochroa is darker slate-grey without streaks on the back and lives in shrubbery near the treeline. Ash-breasted Sierra Finch Geospizopsis plebejus is smaller, with a pointed, dark bill and no chestnut vent. The male Plumbeous Sierra Finch Geospizopsis unicolor is plain lead-grey, with a dark, pointed bill.
Habitat
Páramo, jalca and puna with scattered shrubs, grassland at the edge of Polylepis groves, shrubby slopes and highland fields, roughly between 2500 and 4500 m. It lives in pairs or small groups, outside the breeding season also in larger flocks, and eats grass seeds on or near the ground. The nest is a cup of grass low in a shrub or grass tussock.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Central and Eastern Andes. In Ecuador along the whole of the Andes. In Peru widespread in the highlands. In Bolivia in the Andes. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Venezuela, northern Chile and north-western Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In grassland with shrubs above the fields, look for small groups of grey birds with a pink bill; in flushed birds, note the absence of a white tail band.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Widespread and locally common; it tolerates grazed grassland and small-scale farming.
Scientific name
Catamenia inornata | (de Lafresnaye, 1847)
De Lafresnaye described the species in 1847 as Linaria inornata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Catamenia was introduced in 1850 by Bonaparte. The genus name probably comes from Greek katamēnia, 'menses', presumably referring to the rufous undertail coverts. The species name is Latin inornatus, 'unadorned', referring to the plain plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bolivia.