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Tricolored Brushfinch | Atlapetes tricolor
Driekleurige struikgors | Atlapetes tricolor | Tico-tico-tricolor
The Tricolored Brushfinch is an olive and yellow brushfinch with a yellow to ochre crown, found only on the eastern slope of the Andes in Peru. Its name refers to the three colours of the head and body: yellow, black and olive. The Pacific birds of Colombia and Ecuador are now usually treated as a separate species, Choco Brushfinch.
Voice
The song has two or three parts and usually begins with two long, descending notes, followed by a faster series. Excited pairs sing in duet. The call is a high ti.
Recording: José María Loaiza B. — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
17–18 cm, with a sturdy black bill. The crown and nape are yellow to ochre, the face is black. The upperparts are olive, the wings dusky grey with olive edges. The underparts are yellow, with an olive wash that is darkest on the flanks. The sexes are alike. Juveniles are dark brown above and paler brown below, with a dark rufous crown.
Confusion species
Yellow-breasted Brushfinch Atlapetes latinuchus has a rufous crown and slate-grey upperparts without olive; it lives in northern Peru and barely overlaps with Tricolored Brushfinch. Choco Brushfinch Atlapetes crassus closely resembles Tricolored Brushfinch, but lives only on the Pacific slope in Colombia and Ecuador. Chestnut-capped Brushfinch Arremon brunneinucha has a chestnut crown, a white throat and a black breast band.
Habitat
Shrubby edges and openings of humid montane forest, secondary forest and open cloud forest, roughly between 1500 and 3000 m. It searches from the ground up to about ten metres for insects, other invertebrates, seeds and small fruits, often in mixed flocks. The nest is a cup in dense undergrowth.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Only in Peru, on the eastern slope of the Andes, from northern La Libertad south to western Cusco. 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 forest edges and mountain roads on the eastern slope in central Peru, for example in the cloud forests of Junín and Pasco. Pairs sing mainly in the early morning; during the day they often join mixed flocks at the forest edge.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species tolerates secondary forest and forest edges; locally its habitat is lost to clearance for farming.
Scientific name
Atlapetes tricolor | (Taczanowski, 1875)
Taczanowski described the species in 1875 as Buarremon tricolor; 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 Latin tricolor, 'three-coloured', for the yellow, black and olive plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Chilpes, Junín, Peru.