Dull-colored Grassquit

About the Dull-colored Grassquit

The dull-colored grassquit (Asemospiza obscura) is a small bird in the family Thraupidae, the tanagers and allies. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. The dull-colored grassquit was formally described in 1837 with the binomial Emberiza obscura. For much of the twentieth century it was placed in the genus Sporophila but by the early twenty-first it had been transferred to Tiaris. Finally, based on studies published in 2014 and 2015, in 2016 Burns et al. erected the genus Asemospiza with the sooty grassquit (A. fuliginosa) as the type species and including the dull-colored grassquit. The genus is closely related to Darwin's finches.

The dull-colored grassquit has these four subspecies: A. o. haplochroma (Todd, 1912) A. o. pauper (Berlepsch & Taczanowski, 1884) A. o. obscura (d'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837) A. o. pacifica (Koepcke, 1963) The dull-colored grassquit is 10.5 to 11.5 cm (4.1 to 4.5 in) long and weighs an average of 11.2 g (0.40 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies A. o. obscura have a brownish head and upperparts. They have thin, pale... Wikipedia →