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Rufous-backed Inca Finch | Incaspiza personata
Roodrugincagors | Incaspiza dorsirrufo | Tico-tico-inca-de-dorso-ruivo
The Rufous-backed Inca Finch is the inca finch of the highest slopes: a grey, ground-dwelling finch with a black face mask, an orange-yellow bill and a rufous back. It occurs only in Peru, in the upper Marañón valley and on the west slope of the Andes in Ancash. The scientific name personata means 'masked'.
Voice
The song is a high, thin series of buzzy notes that runs into a short trill. The call is a thin, high tseet.
Recording: Ross Gallardy — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
16–17 cm, with a conical, orange-yellow bill. The forehead, lores, chin and throat are black and form a clear mask. The head, neck and breast are grey, the belly whitish. The back, scapulars and wing coverts are rufous; the tail is dark with white outer tail feathers, which show in flight. The sexes are similar. Young birds are duller, with a smaller mask and a less bright bill.
Confusion species
Great Inca Finch Incaspiza pulchra lives mainly farther south on the west slope of the Andes and has less black around the bill. Grey-winged Inca Finch Incaspiza ortizi lacks the rufous on the wings. Buff-bridled Inca Finch Incaspiza laeta is smaller and has a pale, buff-yellow malar stripe along the black throat. Little Inca Finch Incaspiza watkinsi is much smaller, with a streaked brown back, and lives much lower in the valley.
Habitat
Dry, rocky slopes with shrubs, cacti and bromeliads, also at the edges of fields and terraces, roughly between 2400 and 3700 m. It feeds on the ground and in low shrubs on seeds and insects and often runs between the stones. The nest is a cup low in a shrub.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Peru in the upper Marañón valley (La Libertad, Ancash and Huánuco) and on the west slope of the Andes in Ancash. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search along mountain roads in Ancash, for example around Huaylas and on the west side of the Cordillera Negra, and in the upper Marañón valley, early in the morning on rocky slopes with shrubs. Watch for the white tail sides as a bird flies off.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The range is small, but the dry scrub on the slopes is under little pressure; grazing and burning may play a role locally.
Scientific name
Incaspiza personata | (Salvin, 1895)
Salvin described the species in 1895 as Haemophila personata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Incaspiza was introduced in 1898 by Ridgway. The genus name combines the Incas with Greek spiza, 'finch'. The species name comes from Latin personatus, 'masked'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cajamarca, Peru.