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Birds of Zihuatanejo

CLASS AVES

-Animals (Kingdom Animalia)

-Chordates (Phylum Chordata)

-Vertebrates (Subphylum Vertebrata)

-Birds (Class Aves)

-Perching Birds (Order Passeriformes)

-New World Sparrows (Family Passerellidae)

-Genus Peucaea

-Stripe-headed Sparrow (Peucaea ruficauda)


Stripe-headed Sparrows are common in the lowlands of southwestern Mexico south through Central America to Costa Rica. As you travel south, Stripe-headed Sparrows become larger and brighter. Their habitat is d arid to semiarid brushy scrub and semi-open areas. The adult has a black head with broad white stripes on the crown and above each eye. The nape is narrowly grey and the rest of the upperparts are pale brown, streaked with black on the back, but unstreaked and more buff on the rump and tail. The diet consists of seeds, grass, buds, fruits, and arthropods.

Stripe-headed Sparrow

Peucaea ruficauda

Diet

  • Primarily seeds of grasses, weeds, and other herbaceous plants.

  • During the breeding season, also feeds on insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, ants, caterpillars, termites, and spiders.

  • Forages mainly on the ground, scratching through leaf litter and low vegetation for food.

Range

  • Found from northwestern Mexico south along the Pacific slope through western and southern Mexico to northwestern Costa Rica.

  • In Mexico, it occurs from southern Sonora through Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas.

  • Common in the Zihuatanejo region, where it is a year-round resident.

  • Inhabits tropical dry forests, thorn scrub, brushy hillsides, open woodland, overgrown fields, and woodland edges, generally from sea level to about 1,800 m.

Male / Female

  • Male: Gray face with bold black-and-white head stripes, a distinctive rufous crown and nape, gray breast, buff flanks, and a long rounded tail. Slightly larger than the female.

  • Female: Very similar in appearance but generally slightly duller and smaller.

  • Sexes cannot be reliably distinguished in the field except by subtle size differences or breeding behaviour.

Size

  • Length: 15–17 cm (5.9–6.7 in)

  • Wingspan: 20–23 cm (7.9–9.1 in)

  • Weight: 18–27 g

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