Wednesday, October 11, 2006

New Bird in Colombia

As I noted in a post a few days ago, the birdiest country in the world just got birdier. Colombia has a new bird, the Yariguíes Brush-Finch (Atlapetes latinuchus yariguierum). It was found in northern Colombia, in the Yariguíes mountain range, near the reserve for wintering Cerulean Warblers. Some reports describe this as a new species, but currently the form is classed as a subspecies. The formal description of the species (with more pictures and a range map) is available here (pdf). The authors indicate that the various subspecies of Atlapetes latinuchus may be split further into new species.

My original post did not include an illustration, so I am adding one now.

For more on birding in Colombia, see here.