Pale-naped Brush Finch

Zimtstirn - Buschammer ( Atlapetes pallidinucha )

The Zimtstirn - Buschammer ( Atlapetes pallidinucha ) is a species of bird in the bunting family ( Emberizidae ). The species has a large distribution area, which includes the South American countries: Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. The stock is assessed by the IUCN as endangered not (Least Concern ).

Features

The Zimtstirn - Buschammer reaches a body length of about 18 centimeters. The top is olive gray with greenish trains. The black side of the head and neck acts like a mask. The wide central stripe on the crown is at the front of cinnamon to orange and fades in the rear area to the white. The throat is pale yellow. The rest of the underside is yellowish olive green. The olive -colored side and the rump lacks the yellowish paint.

Distribution and habitat

The species occurs in the bushy forest edges and krummholzartigem secondary forest at altitudes of 2500 to 3900 meters at the Papallacta Pass in Ecuador before.

Behavior

This Zimtstirn - Buschammer lives nearer the bottom Stratifikationschichten. It behaves rather unremarkable. You often see them together with other species such as hook beaks ( Diglossa ), tanagers ( Thraupidae ) and other bush buntings ( Atlapetes ). Since it is mainly in bushes on the go, you can watch them when jumping from branch to branch at times. It feeds on berries, among other things.

Subspecies

There are described two subspecies, which differ mainly in their coloring and their area of ​​distribution:

• Atlapetes pallidinucha pallidinucha ( Boissonneau, 1840) nominate. Come to the south of the Venezuelan state of Táchira before the Páramo de Tamá and to the mountains El Retiro and Las Copas. In Colombia, the eastern Andes to the Departamento de Cundinamarca are his home.
• Atlapetes pallidinucha papallactae Hellmayr, 1913 Differs. With darker top and bottom The back, rump, upper tail-coverts, small and medium upper wing-coverts are deep sooty black. The underside is dull yellow. The neck strip is pure white. The beak is noticeably smaller than in the nominate form. The distribution area of ​​Colombia in the Central Andes of Departamento de Antioquia Nariño up. In Ecuador it is present on the eastern slopes of the Andes in the province of Napo at Papallacta Pass. From this province derives its name this subspecies. In Peru, they are found at the eastern Andes in the extreme northern Peru to the west of the Marañón.

Research History and etymology

Auguste Boissonneau described this Buschammer initially Tanagra ( Arremon ) pallidinucha. The word Atlapetes for the genus is composed of atla for the Titan Atlas, whose name means support sufferers and petes together from Greek petros for the rock. Atlas was in ancient mythology the heavens on his shoulders. The specific epithet comes from the Latin and is composed of the words pallida for white and nucha for the neck together.