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Saffron-billed Sparrow | Arremon flavirostris
Geelsnavelgors | Cerquero piquiamarillo | Tico-tico-de-bico-amarelo
The Saffron-billed Sparrow is a sparrow with a black-and-white striped head and an orange-yellow bill of dry forest and gallery forest in the interior of South America. In the guide area it occurs only in eastern Bolivia. Since Moss-backed Sparrow of the Andean foothills was split off, the species comprises the birds of the Chaco, the cerrado and the Atlantic Forest.
Voice
The song begins with a short introduction, followed by a series of repeated, high, piercing notes, roughly tsee-tsee tseep-tseep-tseep-tseep. The call is a sharp tseet.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
15–16 cm, with a conical, orange-yellow bill. The head is black, with a narrow grey median crown stripe and a white supercilium that starts behind the eye. The nape and sides of the neck are grey; in Bolivian birds the back is grey to greyish olive, the wings olive-green, with yellow at the bend of the wing. The underparts are white, with a black breast band and grey flanks. The female is duller, with buffy flanks. Juveniles are browner, with a less distinct head pattern and a darker bill.
Confusion species
Moss-backed Sparrow Arremon dorbignii lives in the Andean foothills of Bolivia; it has an olive-green back, a longer supercilium starting in front of the eye and a narrower breast band, and its song is more varied. Pectoral Sparrow Arremon taciturnus has a black bill and lives in humid lowland forest. Rufous-collared Sparrow Zonotrichia capensis has a rufous collar and a streaked back.
Habitat
Undergrowth of semi-evergreen and dry forest, gallery forest along rivers and scrub along forest edges, in the lowlands up to about 1000 m. Forages on the ground among fallen leaves for insects and seeds. The nest is a domed structure on or just above the ground.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Bolivia in the eastern lowlands, mainly in Santa Cruz, in Chiquitano dry forest and in gallery forests of the Chaco; perhaps also in southern Beni and eastern Chuquisaca and Tarija. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in the interior and south-east of Brazil, in Paraguay and in north-eastern Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search the undergrowth of dry forest and gallery forest around Santa Cruz and in the Chiquitania. Listen for the series of piercing notes and look low in dense cover along forest trails.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The range is large; locally habitat is lost to forest clearance for farming and cattle ranching in eastern Bolivia.
Scientific name
Arremon flavirostris | Swainson, 1838
Swainson described the species in 1838 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Arremon was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. The genus name comes from Greek arrhēmōn, 'silent, without speech'. The species name comes from Latin flavus, 'yellow', and rostrum, 'bill': 'yellow-billed'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Interior of Bahia, Brazil.