The Ubiquitous Finch

 (Léase en español / Read in Spanish)

“The finch?”, you’re saying to yourself. “They’re going to show pictures of a finch?”
 
Okay. Admittedly the finch is rather ubiquitous. Sparrows are also in the finch family, so between the two of them there are finches in every corner of the globe, except frigid Antarctica. They’re rather like our friend the pigeon, right? However, while you may not think of the finch as being an exciting bird, did you realize that in southern South America alone, there are at least 77 species of finches? And just in the department of Tarija, Bolivia, it is possible to see 32 of these. So now you should be saying: “Oh, well then I wonder which finch they will show?”

Meet the Saffron Finch.

We were excited to see this bright yellow bird flitting around so we got quite a few
shots of it. But then we pulled out our illustrated bird guide and identified him and realized “Oh. It’s a finch.”

These photos are of a male saffron finch. He is mostly bright yellow, with streaks on the back. During the breeding season he has a distinctive orange forehead, especially notable in the picture above.

It only now occurs to me, as I'm preparing this entry, that we don’t have any pictures of his lady friends. The female saffron finch is mostly streaky with only a tinge of yellow coloring. In a word, ordinary. I suppose for that reason we haven’t yet felt compelled to capture an image of one. We’ll have to do so and post it. After all, this blog is dedicated as much to the ordinary as to the wondrous.

Now for the details:

1. Family: Emberizinae
2. Latin name: Sicalis flaveola
3. Size: 13.5 centimeters (5.25 inches)
4. Voice: Musical and varied songs, though rather squeaky.
5. Common names: 
• English: Saffron Finch
• South American: Jilguero común (Argentina, Uruguay); Jilguero amarillo (Bolivia); Dorado (Uruguay); Guyra sa’yju’i (Paraguay); Canário-da-terra-verdadeiro (Brazil)

 (Léase en español / Read in Spanish)