Serra da Canastra, Minas Gerais, Brazil; 4 February 2008 © Scott Olmstead

The Black-masked Finch is of uncertain relationships, although in some aspects of plumage and bill pattern there is a suggestion that it is related to the Pampa-Finches (Embernagra) and Grass-Finches (Emberizoides). This finch is a grassland species, found in a fragmented range with a clear isolate out in near the mouth of the Amazon. The other populations are in the grasslands of southern Brazil, and Bolivia-Paraguay. The Black-masked Finch is a handsome bird with a bicolored orange and black bill, a black face contrasting with a bold white supercilium, olive-green upperparts and white underparts. Its preferred habitats are tall grasslands with interspersed shrubs, or even Butia palms. The song is high pitched and insect like, a set of paired notes so closely spaced that they sound like one frequency modulated note “TZiieeep” repeated at intervals of approximately two seconds.

Recommended Citation

. 2010. Black-masked Finch (Coryphaspiza melanotis), Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; retrieved from Neotropical Birds Online: http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/species/overview?p_p_spp=646156