365 Urban Species. #106: Lesser Antillean Bullfinch

[urbpan]

Photo of female bullfinch, by cottonmanifesto

Urban species #106: Lesser Antillean bullfinch Loxigilla noctis

In the absence of house sparrows, some other little bird will cling near to houses and other buildings, and glean the crumbs forever dropped by their inhabitants. In the eastern Caribbean islands this role is taken by the Lesser Antillean bullfinch. Alexis and I nearly took this bird to be our personal mascot on our trip. The male, all black but for reddish patches on his throat and under his tail, and the female dull olive throughout, were equally likely to visit us as we sat on a porch or at an open-air restaurant.

While this bird is common on the islands on which it occurs, it is found nowhere else on Earth. There are two other species in the Genus Loxigilla, a species from the Greater Antilles, and one from Puerto Rico. They are in the family Emberizidae, the American sparrows, along with the junco and white-throated sparrow.



Two shots of a male by cottonmanifesto, and two females by urbpan