Black-faced Solitaire
Encyclopedia
The Black-faced Solitaire, (Myadestes melanops) is a bird
in the thrush family
endemic to highlands in Costa Rica
and western Panama
.
This is a bird
of dense undergrowth and bamboo
clumps in wet mountain forest, normally from 750 to 3000 m altitude. It disperse as low as 400 m in the wet season, when it may form loose flocks. It builds a cup nest of mosses and liverwort
s in a tree crevice, hole in a mossy bank, or concealed amongst mosses and epiphyte
s in a tree fork up to 3.5 m above the ground. The female lays 2-3 rufous-brown marked white or pinkish eggs between April and June. The fledging period is 15–16 days.
The Black-faced Solitaire is a slim thrush, 16-18.5 cm long, and weighing 33 g on average. The adult is slate grey with a black face and chin which contrast with the broad orange bill. The wings and tail are slate-edged black, and the underwing coverts are silvery-white, a feature which shows well in flight. The legs are orange. The juvenile has buff streaks on the head and upperparts, and buff and brown mottling on the underparts.
The Black-faced Solitaire usually forages low in vegetation, mainly for berries, but also insect
s. It will ascend into the canopy or emerge into trees in pasture in its search for food. The call is a nasal ghank or liquid quirt, and the song is a beautiful fluty whistle. teedleedlee…tleedleeee…lee-dah…lee-dah given mainly in the evening from a shady canopy perch. While the extremely slow song is of a wonderfully pure, ethereal color in nature, when held in a cage the sound leads to it commonly being called squeaky hinge bird.
The Black-faced Solitaire remains common in protected and inaccessible areas, but trapping of this prized songster for the cage-bird trade has badly affected its numbers elsewhere.
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
in the thrush family
Thrush (bird)
The thrushes, family Turdidae, are a group of passerine birds that occur worldwide.-Characteristics:Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feed on the ground or eat small fruit. The smallest thrush may be the Forest Rock-thrush, at and...
endemic to highlands in Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
and western Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
.
This is a bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
of dense undergrowth and bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
clumps in wet mountain forest, normally from 750 to 3000 m altitude. It disperse as low as 400 m in the wet season, when it may form loose flocks. It builds a cup nest of mosses and liverwort
Marchantiophyta
The Marchantiophyta are a division of bryophyte plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like other bryophytes, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information....
s in a tree crevice, hole in a mossy bank, or concealed amongst mosses and epiphyte
Epiphyte
An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...
s in a tree fork up to 3.5 m above the ground. The female lays 2-3 rufous-brown marked white or pinkish eggs between April and June. The fledging period is 15–16 days.
The Black-faced Solitaire is a slim thrush, 16-18.5 cm long, and weighing 33 g on average. The adult is slate grey with a black face and chin which contrast with the broad orange bill. The wings and tail are slate-edged black, and the underwing coverts are silvery-white, a feature which shows well in flight. The legs are orange. The juvenile has buff streaks on the head and upperparts, and buff and brown mottling on the underparts.
The Black-faced Solitaire usually forages low in vegetation, mainly for berries, but also insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s. It will ascend into the canopy or emerge into trees in pasture in its search for food. The call is a nasal ghank or liquid quirt, and the song is a beautiful fluty whistle. teedleedlee…tleedleeee…lee-dah…lee-dah given mainly in the evening from a shady canopy perch. While the extremely slow song is of a wonderfully pure, ethereal color in nature, when held in a cage the sound leads to it commonly being called squeaky hinge bird.
The Black-faced Solitaire remains common in protected and inaccessible areas, but trapping of this prized songster for the cage-bird trade has badly affected its numbers elsewhere.