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Antillean Siskin | Spinus dominicensis
Haïtisijs | Jilguero antillano
The Antillean Siskin is the only siskin in the Antilles and lives in the pine forest and montane grassland of the mountains of Hispaniola. It is more widespread in the Dominican Republic than in Haiti. Outside the breeding season it roams in small groups, sometimes down to lower elevations.
Voice
A soft chut-chut, a higher swee-ee and a low, bubbling trill. Groups are often first detected by call.
Recording: Johan Chaves — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
11–12 cm, a small, compact finch with a short forked tail and a conical bill. The male has a black head and throat, a narrow yellow collar, an olive-green back and an olive-yellow rump. The underparts are bright yellow with olive flanks. The wings are blackish with yellow patches and edges; the black tail has yellow sides at the base. The female is olive-green above, with a dull yellowish-olive face, a yellowish throat and pale yellow underparts with dark brown streaks, becoming white on the belly.
Confusion species
Male Hispaniolan Euphonia Chlorophonia musica is also black and yellow, but has a blue crown, a dark back and a short thick bill. Females resemble those of Hispaniolan Crossbill Loxia megaplaga, which is much larger, with a crossed bill and white wing bars. Yellow-faced Grassquit Tiaris olivaceus has a yellow face but no streaked underparts and no yellow in the wing and tail.
Habitat
Pine forest, the edges of moist montane forest and cloud forest, and grassy clearings and montane grassland within them. Mostly between 1000 and 2500 m; in cold weather sometimes down to about 500 m. It feeds mainly on seeds, on the ground, in low vegetation and in shrubs and trees, in small or larger loose groups.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Endemic to Hispaniola. In the Dominican Republic in the Cordillera Central, the Sierra de Bahoruco and the Sierra de Neiba; in Haiti in the Massif de la Selle and the Massif de la Hotte.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the Dominican Republic at Valle Nuevo and in the higher parts of the Sierra de Bahoruco, where groups forage along forest tracks and in grassy clearings in the pine forest. After cold nights sometimes also lower in the mountains.
Conservation status
Not threatened, but with a small range; the population size is unknown and thought to be declining. Common and widespread in the Dominican Republic, uncommon but increasing in the Massif de la Hotte in Haiti.
Scientific name
Spinus dominicensis | (Bryant, 1867)
Bryant described the species in 1867 as Chrysomitris dominicensis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Spinus was introduced in 1816 by Koch. Spinus goes back to Ancient Greek spinos, a name for a small bird that can no longer be identified with certainty. dominicensis refers to Santo Domingo, the old name for the island of Hispaniola. The specimen the first description was based on came from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.