The Cuzco brushfinch (''Atlapetes canigenis''), also known as the grey brushfinch or sooty brushfinch, is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Passerellidae New World sparrows are a group of mainly New World passerine birds, forming the family Passerellidae. They are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns. Although they share th ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to humid

Andean The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long and wide (widest between 18°S ...

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

in southeastern

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, where mainly found in

Cusco Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous Cusco Province, province and Cusco Region, department. The city was the cap ...

. It is sometimes considered a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the slaty brushfinch.

Description

Brushfinches are typically medium-size sparrows, with long tails. Brushfinches are usually gray or olive in colour with a contrasting crown. Cuzco brushfinches are two-toned with a uniform dusky gray and a

rufous Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish- red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a d ...

crown. The center of the belly, as well as the other underparts, are lighter gray than the outside, which is dark gray and the rufous color extends to the

nape The nape is the back of the neck. In technical anatomical/medical terminology, the nape is also called the nucha (from the Medieval Latin rendering of the Arabic , ). The corresponding adjective is ''nuchal'', as in the term ''nuchal rigidity'' ...

. The crown is boarded by a black stripe extending from in front of the eyes until the gray auriculars. The tail and wings are blackish with the

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

margined slightly with a grayish external. There is a slight

fulvous Fulvous is a colour, sometimes described as dull orange, brownish-yellow or tawny; it can also be likened to a variation of buff, beige or butterscotch. As an adjective it is used in the names of many species of birds, and occasionally other ...

or tawny tint to the remiges most external parts. One important note is that the Cuzco brushfinch shows considerable variation with the intensity of gray in the underparts - some almost uniformly dark gray below and others that are pale gray with grayish-white abdomens. Males and females are extremely similar in colour, with the female being slightly smaller.

Measurements

Adults: Male: wing , tail 78 mm, tarsus , culmen Female: wing , tail 72 mm, tarsus 25 mm, culmen 15 mm

Taxonomy

The Cuzco brushfinch is a species in the genus ''

Atlapetes ''Atlapetes'' is a genus of birds in the New World sparrow family Passerellidae. The species are mainly found in montane forest from Mexico to northwestern Argentina. Taxonomy and species The genus ''Atlapetes'' was introduced in 1831 by the Ger ...

'' - along with 30 others. This genus is in the under-class Aves, order

passeriformes A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

(songbirds) and family

Emberizidae The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus ''Emberiza'', the only genus in the family Emberizidae. The family contains 44 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills. Taxonomy The family Emberizid ...

. The Cuzco brushfinch has been denoted in 1919 by Chapman as ''Atlapetes canigenis''. In 1938 ''canigenis'' was categorized as a subspecies of slaty brushfinch. However, ''Canigenis'' is in a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

that contains other taxa of ''Atlapetes'' from southern Peru and Bolivia, such as ''Atlapetes melanolaemus'' (black-faced brush-finch), ''Atlapetes melanopsis'' (black-spectacled brush-finch) and ''Atlapetes forbesi'' (Apurimac brush-finch), and is not as closely related to ''schistaceus'' as once thought. Remsen and Graves (1995) later predicted that the populations of the slaty brushfinch are not

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

but rather have a closer relatedness to the parapatric populations of rufous-naped brushfinch. This species had population distributed from northwestern Venezuela to Bolivia. Many brushfinches occur in this area; for example, ''A. mfinucha rerborghi'', ''A. schistaceus canigenis'' and ''A. mfinucha tnelnizolaernus'', which all have a similarly rather poorly developed malar stripe. However this does not imply a close relationship, despite all looking very similar and having a similar habitat. Paynter (1978) hypothesised no close relationship between ''A. melanolaemus'' and ''A. canigenis''.

Distribution and habitat

Distribution

The Cuzco brushfinch is native to the Americas. More specifically it is an

of south-central

where it is found in montane areas of the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

. The known elevation range for this brushfinch is approximately above sea level. They are mostly seen in the surrounding areas of

Habitat

There is very little information on the specific habitat of the Cuzco brushfinch. They do tend to reside in the humid

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

zone of the Andes, as they thrive in humid

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

on the slopes.

Behavior

Vocalization

The Cuzco brushfinch has complex series of high-pitched squeaks. It is described as "shrill trill followed by a chatter and ''tew-tew-tew swee swee''". Their “

dawn song Dawn Song is a Chinese American academic and is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. She received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2010. Education Song earne ...

” was defined as the varied phrases given at regular intervals by the male alone, mainly or only at dawn and is different than a duet call. They are also known to include loud drawn out notes.

Diet

Undocumented, but most likely it will eat a mixture of terrestrial invertebrates, seeds, and small fruits and berries. They have been seen to eat seeds from a tree. Similar species have been documented as a group to the sub-canopy type foragers.

Reproduction

Very little is documented about the nest and eggs of the Cuzco brushfinch. It is presumed that the nest is a cup. This species is seen very actively breeding at altitudes of , meaning that they probably stay in their normal habitat for this.

References

External links

Cuzco Brush Finch song
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1924690 Cuzco brush finch Birds of the Peruvian Andes Endemic birds of Peru Cuzco brush finch Taxonomy articles created by Polbot