The Merida brushfinch or Merida brush finch (''Atlapetes meridae'') 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, the New World sparrows. 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 northwestern
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
.
Taxonomy and systematics
The ''
Handbook of the Birds of the World
The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. ...
'' (HBW) and the
Clements taxonomy consider the Merida brushfinch to be a subspecies of moustached brushfinch (''Atlapetes albofrenatus'') but note that it might be a full species.
[Jaramillo, A., J. del Hoyo, N. Collar, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Moustached Brushfinch (Atlapetes albofrenatus), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.mobfin1.02] The
International Ornithological Congress (IOC) has accepted it as a full species.
[
]
Description
Adults weigh about and are in length. The adult's body is olive above merging to lemon yellow below; wings and tail are olive. The head has a chestnut crown, a black mask, a white submoustacial stripe, and a yellow throat. The juvenile is duller, being olive above and dark yellow below. Its head pattern is similar to that of the adult but muted.[
]
Distribution and habitat
The Merida brushfinch is a year-round resident of the Andes of western Venezuela, in Mérida and the eastern part of Táchira departments. It prefers humid elfin
Elfin may refer to:
*ELFIN, a CubeSat developed by University of California, Los Angeles
*Elfin (steamboat), a steamboat that ran on Lake Washington from 1891 to 1900
*Elfin of Alt Clut, ruler of Alt Clut, seventh century Scotland
*Elfin, a charac ...
and oak-dominant forest and is a bird of dense undergrowth including ferns and bamboo within and along the borders of such forests. It also inhabits drier woodland with dense undergrowth and is tolerant of disturbed habitats. The brushfinch is found primarily between but has been found as low as .[
]
Behavior and ecology
The Merida brushfinch feeds primarily on arthropods, fruits, and berries. It tends to forage from the ground to up in shrubs and trees. It usually forages and travels in pairs or family groups but will also join mixed-species flocks. Though it usually remains hidden in dense vegetation, it appears to tolerate human observers.[
Almost nothing is known about the Merida brushfinch's breeding biology. Its courtship, behavior at a nest, and the nest itself have not been described. Young have been seen: a juvenile bird in Perijá in August and fledglings in Mérida in May and June.][
]
Status
Though the species has a rather restricted range, it is fairly common within it and appears to have a stable population. That and its tolerance for disturbed habitat lead the IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...
to consider it a species of least concern.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q22443058
Atlapetes
Endemic birds of Venezuela
Birds of the Venezuelan Andes
Birds described in 1871
Taxa named by Philip Sclater
Taxa named by Osbert Salvin