Black-faced Grassquit
(Tiaris bicolor)
Photographed at Rockland’s bird sanctuary, Jamaica Aug 2013
St Thomas, USVI Mar 2015
Black-faced Grassquit is a small
tanager, very dark olive-gray with black head, breast,
bill, legs and feet. Very common in the West Indies and 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.
The
Grassquit were long considered sparrows, but recent molecular studies have
placed them in the tanagers, closely related to Darwin’s “finches”. Casual
visitor to South Florida.
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