The thick-billed saltator (''Saltator maxillosus'') is a species of saltator in the family Thraupidae. It is found in highland

Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

in southeastern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, far northeastern

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

(only Misiones Province), and perhaps far eastern

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. Unlike most other saltators, it is

sexually dichromatic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most anim ...

: Females resemble a green-winged saltator, but with a thicker bill, greener face and

buff Buff or BUFF may refer to: People * Buff (surname), a list of people * Buff (nickname), a list of people * Johnny Buff, ring name of American world champion boxer John Lisky (1888–1955) * Buff Bagwell, a ring name of American professional wr ...

throat. The male thick-billed saltator is unique with its long white eyebrow, grey back, and black and orange beak (amount of orange varies).

Taxonomy

Monotypic species In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

( subspecies are not recognized ). (Clements checklist, 2014).

Description

Measures about 19 centimeters. It draws attention by the very thick, tall and yellow beak at the base. Upper parts dark gray. Almost without green, white eyebrow starting at the base of the beak, lower parts rusty; female with green back; the immature with green upper parts and the black beak. Its vocalization is by stanza of four strong calls, the third loudest, sings from August onwards.

Behavior

Feeding

Just like its counterpart, the real iron crack ('' Saltator similis''), this species feeds on seeds, leaves, insects and fruits ( omnivorous).

Breeding

During reproduction they live strictly in couples, extremely loyal to a territory . They build cup-shaped nests at little height, the incubation lasts around 14 days. It has an average of 2 litters per season with 3 eggs each.

Distribution and habitat

They live on the edge of the forest, gardens, locally in the high mountains of Southeast Brazil. The species range is from Espírito Santo to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, and from there to the northeast of

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

and east of

References

External links

Thick-billed Saltator videos
on the Internet Bird Collection

VIREO * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070705204520/http://www.ib.usp.br/ceo/images/sal_maxi.JPG Photo-High Res ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071208185524/http://www.ib.usp.br/ceo/imag_sons/fvcard.htm Articlewww.ib.usp.br–''"Cardinalidae"'' thick-billed saltator Birds of the Atlantic Forest thick-billed saltator Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Thraupidae-stub