All species › Passerines › Finches, euphonias and allies › White-lored Euphonia
White-lored Euphonia | Euphonia chrysopasta
Goudbuikorganist | Eufonia loriblanca | Gaturamo-verde
The White-lored Euphonia is an olive-green euphonia of the Amazonian lowlands, lacking the black-and-yellow pattern of most of its relatives. Both sexes have white lores and a white chin. Pairs often sit high in the canopy and call frequently.
Voice
A sharp, two-part call like pitch-weet, often repeated, also in flight. The song is a long, twittering medley of short, high notes.
Recording: Robson Silva e Silva — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11 cm, with a short, thick bill. Both sexes have a white loral spot and a white chin, contrasting with the olive-green head. The male is olive-green above, with a greyish nape, and below olive-yellow on the breast and golden yellow on the belly. The female has the same upperparts, but a grey breast and belly with olive-yellow flanks. Young birds resemble the female, but are duller.
Confusion species
Bronze-green Euphonia Euphonia mesochrysa is also olive-green, but lacks the white lores and chin, has a yellowish forehead and lives higher, in the montane forest of the eastern slope. Female Orange-bellied Euphonias Euphonia xanthogaster have a rufous forehead and a grey nape, without white at the bill. Female Rufous-bellied Euphonias Euphonia rufiventris have a grey head and ochre undertail coverts. Males of the other lowland euphonias are black and yellow.
Habitat
The canopy and edges of humid lowland forest, on terra firme and in várzea, also tall trees in clearings and along rivers, up to about 1000 m. It feeds on mistletoe berries and other small fruit, and sometimes joins mixed tanager flocks. The nest is a domed structure with a side entrance, in moss or epiphytes high in a tree.
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 Amazonia and the lowlands east of the Andes. In Ecuador and Peru throughout the lowlands east of the Andes, locally on the lowest slopes. In Bolivia in the northern and central lowlands. Absent from the Galápagos and west of the Andes. Outside the guide area in southern Venezuela, the Guianas and Brazilian Amazonia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen for the sharp two-part call from tall trees along forest edges and rivers; canopy towers and clearings give the best view of the canopy. Pairs often fly high from tree to tree.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is widespread in the Amazonian lowlands; forest loss is a local threat, but it tolerates forest edges and older secondary forest.
Scientific name
Euphonia chrysopasta | Sclater & Salvin, 1869
Sclater & Salvin described the species in 1869 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Euphonia was introduced in 1806 by Desmarest, A-G. The genus name comes from Greek euphōnos, from eu 'good' and phōnē 'sound', meaning 'sweet-voiced', after the calls of these birds. The species name comes from Greek chrusos, 'gold', and pastos, 'sprinkled', meaning 'sprinkled with gold'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Lower Ucayali River, Peru.