| Black-and-tawny Seedeater (Sporophila nigrorufa)
|
 |
Vila Bela de Santíssima Trindade, Mato Grosso, Brazil
March 2003The Black-and-tawny Seedeater is distributed in a small area of western Mato Grosso, Brazil and eastern Bolivia. Ridgely & Tudor states that it is "Rare and virtually unknown in life" but we found quite a few at this particular spot at this particular time of year. |
 |
They were mainly in tall grass in wide ditches full of water at the side of the road and they were the most numerous of several species of seedeater including one male Rufous-rumped Seedeater S. hypochroma and one male Dark-throated Seedeater S. ruficollis as well as a couple of Plumbeous Seedeater S. plumbea. Coordinates for this Sporophila paradise are 15º 3.4' S, 59º 44.2' W. |
 |
Luís Fábio Silveira and Fernando Mendonça d'Horta, in their paper "A Avifauna da Região de Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade, Mato Grosso" (Papéis Avulsos de Zool., S. Paulo 42(10):265-286) state: "The cerrados of Vila Bela de Santíssima Trindade probably contain the largest population of a globally threatened species, the Black-and-tawny Seedeater, Sporophila nigrorufa, as well as many other cerrado specialists and deserve immediate conservation measures" |
 |
It is the only male seedeater with rufous underparts where the black crown extends down its back. It is classified as Vulnerable by Birdlife International whose "Threatened Birds of the World" has an illustration on Page 553. It must be said that the illustration shows much darker rufous underparts than we observed.
|
|
|
|
