Crimson-breasted Finch Rhodospingus cruentus Scientific name definitions

Also known as Crimson Finch, the Crimson-breasted Finch is a poorly known bird that is assigned its own genus, and it is endemic to western Ecuador and northwest Peru. The species occurs to at least 750 m, but is generally much rarer in Peru than over its Ecuadorian range, wherein it is usually locally common. Males are striking-looking birds, being a bold mixture of red (over the crown, throat and underparts) and black (on the head sides, face, upperparts and tail). Females, in contrast, are dull, unassuming birds, which rather resemble Sporophila seedeaters, and are principally dull brown above and over the head, with paler, buffy, underparts, but they share the male’s rather slender, pointed bill. The Crimson-breasted Finch inhabits the understory of low woodland and scrub, usually in arid regions, and nests during the wet season (January–May), during which period the birds become distinctly more arboreal. In the non-breeding period, the species regularly forms flocks, in which fully adult males appear to be unusually scarce, and these frequently join bands of Sporophila seedeaters. The species’ song is a constantly repeated tsee-tzztzz, which recalls that of the Blue-black Grassquit (Volatinia jacarina), but lacks any real suggestion of two notes.

W Ecuador (W Pichincha and Esmeraldas) S along coastal slope and plain to NW Peru (S to Piura and S Lambayeque).

Alvaro began birding as an 11 year old in Canada, and eventually trained in Evolutionary Ecology studying, creatures as varied as leaf-cutter ants and Argentine cowbirds. But his career has been focused on birding tourism, both as a guide and owner of his tour company, as well as a avitourism consultant to various organizations. He is the author of Birds of Chile, New World Blackbirds: The Icterids, as well as the ABA Field Guide to the birds of California. He lives in Half Moon Bay, California where he is known for his pelagic birding trips. Email: alvaro@alvarosadventures.com.