The rose-breasted chat (''Granatellus pelzelni'') 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

Cardinalidae Cardinalidae (sometimes referred to as "cardinal-grosbeaks" or simply "cardinals") is a family of New World-Endemism, endemic passerine birds that consists of Cardinalis, cardinals, grosbeaks, and Passerina, buntings. It also includes several ot ...

, the cardinals or cardinal grosbeaks. It is found in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

and

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 ...

.Curson, J., J. del Hoyo, G. M. Kirwan, and N. Collar (2020). Rose-breasted Chat (''Granatellus pelzelni''), version 1.0. 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.robcha1.01 retrieved May 17, 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The genus ''Granatellus'' was traditionally placed in family Parulidae, the New World warblers. Studies of DNA sequences in the early 2000s resulted in its being moved to its present family. The rose-breasted chat and the other two members of its genus, red-breasted chat (''G. venustus'') and grey-throated chat (''G. sallaei'') form a superspecies.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 19 January 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved January 19, 2021 The rose-breasted chat has two subspecies, the nominate ''Granatellus pelzelni pelzelni'' and ''G. p. paraensis''. The latter might be a species in its own right ("rose-bellied chat"), based on differences in plumage and vocalizations from the nominate.

Description

The nominate rose-breasted chat is long and weighs . The male has a black head with a white

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...

, blue-gray upperparts, and a black tail. Its throat is white with a thin black line separating it from the rose-red breast, belly, and vent area. It has white flanks separating the blue-gray and red. The female's crown, nape, and upperparts are blue-gray and the tail black. Its face, breast, flanks, and vent are a rich buff and its throat and belly are white. The male ''G. p. paraensis'' is also long. Its plumage differs from the nominate's in that its head is gray except for the forecrown, its underparts are a deeper red, and the white of the flanks is much reduced or absent. The female is essentially identical to the nominate.

Distribution and habitat

The nominate rose-breasted chat is found in extreme eastern Colombia east through southern and southeastern Venezuela and

the Guianas The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, are a geographical region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, formerly British, Dutch, and French Guiana respectiv ...

and southwest through central and eastern Amazonian Brazil to extreme northern Bolivia. ''G. p. paraensis'' is found east of the

Tocantins River The Tocantins River ( , Parkatêjê dialect, Parkatêjê: ''Pyti'' ɨˈti is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" (''Tukã'' for "toucan" and ''Ti'' for "beak"). It ...

in far eastern Amazonian Brazil. Both subspecies inhabit

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zo ...

and its edges and are often found by rivers or lagoons in the forest interior. The nominate also inhabits drier

deciduous forest In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flo ...

and mature

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

. The nominate's range is mostly at low elevation but reaches as high as in southern Venezuela. ''G. p. paraensis''s range is almost entirely at very low elevation.

Behavior

Feeding

The nominate rose-breasted chat's diet is thought to be mostly or entirely insects and other invertebrates. It forages mostly at middle to high levels but sometimes in the understory; it gleans foliage and sallies out to catch flying insects. In the non-breeding season it may join

mixed-species foraging flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock (birds), flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while fora ...

s. ''G. p. paraensis''s diet and foraging habits have not been documented but are assumed to be similar to those of the nominate.

Breeding

Nothing is known about either rose-breasted chat subspecies' breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

except that a nominate male was in breeding condition when collected in January and a nominate juvenile was observed in molt in early May.

Vocalization

The nominate rose-breasted chat's song is " a series of 5–6 clear, sweet notes on one pitch". Its calls include a repeated "jrrt". ''G. p. paraensis''s song is alternating "mellow low-pitched downslurred whistles and harsher short high-pitched notes".

Status

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 ...

has assessed both subspecies of rose-breasted chat as being of Least Concern. "No population estimates f the nominate areavailable, but known from a number of protected areas." However, ''G. p. paraensis'' "is suspected to lose 22–25% of suitable habitat within its distribution over three generations (12 years)".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1588858

rose-breasted chat The rose-breasted chat (''Granatellus pelzelni'') is a species of bird in the family Cardinalidae, the cardinals or cardinal grosbeaks. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela.Curson, J., J. del Ho ...

Birds of Venezuela Birds of the Guiana Shield Birds of the Amazon rainforest

Birds of Brazil Taxonomy articles created by Polbot