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Santa Marta Brushfinch | Atlapetes melanocephalus
Santamartastruikgors | Atlapetes de Santa Marta | Tico-tico-de-santa-marta
The Santa Marta Brushfinch occurs only in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, an isolated range with many endemic species. With its black head, silvery-grey ear patch and bright yellow underparts it is one of the birds most often seen on the slopes of these mountains. It lives in pairs or small groups at forest edges and in scrub.
Voice
High, thin calls, roughly tseet or tsip, and a short series of high, thin notes and trills as song, often in duet.
Recording: Jerome Fischer — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
17–18 cm, with a stout, black bill and a fairly long tail. The head is black, with a silvery-grey patch on the ear coverts behind and below the eye. The upperparts are olive-green; the wings and tail are darker olive-grey. The throat and underparts are bright yellow, and the flanks olive. The sexes are alike; juveniles are duller and browner, with a less distinct ear patch and faintly streaked underparts.
Confusion species
Sierra Nevada Brushfinch Arremon basilicus, which lives in the same mountains, has a black head with grey crown and eyebrow stripes, a white throat and grey underparts. Chestnut-capped Brushfinch Arremon brunneinucha has a chestnut crown, a white throat and a black breast band. No other brushfinch in the Sierra Nevada has a black head and yellow underparts.
Habitat
Edges of humid montane and cloud forest, secondary forest, scrub, bramble and bamboo thickets and shaded coffee plantations, roughly between 1500 and 3000 m, locally lower. It searches low in the vegetation and on the ground for insects, seeds and berries and joins mixed flocks. 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 Colombia only in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, on all slopes of the range. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Walk the mountain road from Minca to the San Lorenzo ridge, where pairs and small groups can be seen along the roadsides and in scrub at forest edges. The birds are most active in the morning and often come close to the road.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species occurs in a single mountain range, but tolerates secondary forest and forest edges; part of the range is protected.
Scientific name
Atlapetes melanocephalus | (Salvin & Godman, 1880)
Salvin & Godman described the species in 1880 as Buarremon melanocephalus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Atlapetes was introduced in 1831 by Wagler. The genus name comes from Greek: the mythical titan Atlas and petēs, 'flyer'. The species name comes from Greek melas, 'black', and kephalē, 'head', for the black head. The specimen the first description was based on came from San Sebastián, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.