All species › Passerines › Finches, euphonias and allies › White-vented Euphonia
White-vented Euphonia | Euphonia minuta
Witbuikorganist | Eufonia vientre blanco | Gaturamo-de-barriga-branca
The White-vented Euphonia is one of the smallest euphonias, an inhabitant of the canopy of humid lowland forest. The male is black and yellow like most of its relatives, but has a white lower belly and undertail coverts. It occurs both west and east of the Andes.
Voice
Short, sharp calls such as chip or chee-chee and a fast, high twitter.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
9 cm, small, with a short, thick bill and a short tail. The male is glossy blue-black above, with a blue-black throat and cheeks and a small yellow forehead patch reaching no further than above the eye. The breast and flanks are yellow, the lower belly and undertail coverts white. There are white spots on the underside of the tail. The female is olive-green above, with a greyish throat, olive-yellow breast and flanks and a whitish grey centre of the belly and undertail. Young birds resemble the female.
Confusion species
Purple-throated Euphonia Euphonia chlorotica and Trinidad Euphonia Euphonia trinitatis have a larger yellow crown patch and a yellow, not white, lower belly. Thick-billed Euphonia Euphonia laniirostris is larger, with a yellow throat. Fulvous-vented Euphonia Euphonia fulvicrissa in the west has an ochre rather than white lower belly. The female differs from most other female euphonias in its grey throat and pale belly; the female Fulvous-vented Euphonia has a rufous forehead and an ochre belly.
Habitat
The canopy and edges of humid lowland forest, also tall trees in clearings, older secondary forest and plantations, up to about 1000 m, locally higher in the west. It feeds mainly on mistletoe berries and other small fruit and sometimes takes insects. It often joins mixed canopy flocks. The nest is a domed structure with a side entrance, in moss or epiphytes.
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 the Pacific and northern lowlands and in Amazonia east of the Andes. In Ecuador in the western lowlands and in the eastern lowlands. In Peru in the lowlands east of the Andes. In Bolivia locally in the north. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area from southern Mexico to Panama, and in Venezuela, the Guianas and Brazilian Amazonia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
From forest edges, clearings or canopy towers, check mistletoe in the highest crowns. The white lower belly is best seen when the bird is viewed from below.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is widespread; lowland deforestation, especially in western Ecuador and the Chocó, is a local threat.
Scientific name
Euphonia minuta | Cabanis, 1849
Cabanis described the species in 1849 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 is Latin minutus, 'small'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Guyana.