Overview

Black-faced Grassquit: Small sparrow, very dark olive-gray with black head and breast. Black bill, legs and feet. Very common in the West Indies. Feeds mainly on seeds, especially of grasses and weeds. The flight is weak, bouncy and fluttering. Alternates rapid wing beats with pulling wings to body.

Black-faced Grassquit: This species is a native resident to the islands of the West Indies, with the exception of Cuba, and also on the northern coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. It is rarely seen in southern Florida, and those sightings are most likely of escaped caged birds. Their preferred habitats include open areas of grasses, scrub, and fields.

Voice Text

"zeezeezee"; "tik-tink-tink-tzeeeeeeeee"

• Males on the South American mainland have more extensively black underparts, shading to a grey belly.
• The male Black-faced Grassquit has a display flight in which he flies for short distances, vibrating his wings and giving a buzzing dik-zeezeezee call.
• They are often found in small groups, but are solitary at evening roosts.
• A group of sparrows has many collective nouns, including a "crew", "flutter", "meinie", "quarrel", and "ubiquity" of sparrows.

Tanagers (Thraupidae)

ORDER

The tanagers are one of the one hundred eighteen families of birds in the order PASSERIFORMES (pronounced pas-ser-i-FOR-meez); a large taxonomic order that also includes the cardinals and grosbeaks, the Old World orioles, and the New World blackbirds.

FAMILY TAXONOMY

The tanager family, Thraupidae (pronounced THRAU-pih-dee), is a large family composed of three hundred and ninety-six species in one hundred and two genera restricted to the Americas.

NORTH AMERICA

There are seventy species of Thraupidae in twenty-four genera that occur in North America. Included among these species are the Scarlet Tanager, bush-tanagers, and the spindalis species of the Caribbean.

KNOWN FOR

The Scarlet Tanager, like many members of this family, is known for its brightly colored plumage. Vivid red and black, this bird shines like a red light against the green foliage.

PHYSICAL

The tanagers are small to medium-sized birds with medium length tails, fairly long wings, medium length legs with strong feet, and medium length fairly stout bills.

COLORATION

The tanager family is among the most brightly colored family of birds in the world. Just about every shade of color imaginable is shown by this family, especially in the glittering plumages of Tangara genus species in South America. The plumages of North American species are mostly red, yellow, and black, the females with duller yellow-olive coloration.

GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT

In North America, members of the Thraupidae occur in forested areas from southern Canada south into Mexico. In the United States and Canada, the Scarlet Tanager occurs in eastern deciduous forests and is mostly replaced by the Summer Tanager in the southeast and the Western Tanager in western coniferous forests. The Hepatic Tanager also occurs in southwestern coniferous forests, other tanager species in the United States being vagrants or introduced.

MIGRATION

A few tanager species in North America are long distance migrants to Central and South America.

HABITS

The North American tanager species are solitary birds on their breeding grounds, but often migrate in flocks and join mixed flocks on their tropical wintering grounds. Most species are arboreal birds that often occur high up in the canopy where they slowly forage for invertebrates and also take fruit.

CONSERVATION

The North American members of this family are not threatened, although a few species in South America are threatened by habitat destruction.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Summer Tanager eats a great deal of bees, often taking them right from their nests without too much apparent discomfort from their stings. Although the stings may not bother it too much, the Summer Tanager does not enjoy eating the stingers because it is often seen rubbing the stinger off on a branch before swallowing the bee.

Author

Artist

Yury Lisyak