Greyish Saltator - Saltator coerulescens

Greyish Saltator (Saltator coerulescens)

Brazil

Saltators are large arboreal finches. The Greyish Saltator's range lies east of the Andes and runs from Colombia to northern Argentina but is absent from eastern and south eastern Brazil.

It is found in both dry and humid regions and in the Amazon Basin is normally associated with water, e.g. várzea and riverside areas.

They are fruit and seed eaters and they seem particularly partial to the fruit of Cecropia trees which are abundant as emergent vegetation on Marchantaria Island where the first photo was taken.

Greyish Saltator, Caseara, Tocantins, Brazil, January 2002 - click for larger image

They are dark grey above with a white supercilium, white throat and black malar stripe. Below they are a lighter grey turning to ochraceous-buff on the belly and undertail coverts.

There are illustrations in Ridgely & Tudor, Volume 1, Plate 24; Hilty & Brown, Plate 55; and Ridgely & Greenfield, Plate 91.

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