SCRUB EUPHONIAS
IN THE MISTLETOE
These mornings when I arrive at Biosphere
Reserve HQ a little after dawn usually I hear high-pitched, rather tentative and shy
bird-peeps. If your computer can digest WAV files you can hear them yourself at http://www.naturesongs.com/sceu2.wav.
The calls emanate from Sweet Acacia trees, ACACIA FARNESIANA, which grow abundantly on
the slopes around Jalpan, just as they did in the northern Yucatan scrub. The Sweet
Acacias are flowering now, their tiny mimosoid blossoms clustered into orange, spherical
inflorescences about the size of large peas, on the ends of peduncles about 3/4-inch long.
You can see this wiry little tree at http://www.floridagardener.com/FLNatives/acaciafarnesiana.htm.
At first I thought the peeping birds must be chasing insects among the acacia's flowers
but the binoculars showed that BB-size, orange, succulent mistletoe fruits were being
sought. Our acacias are heavily parasitized by mistletoes, and our main mistletoe species
produces gummy fruits similar to North American mistletoes, except that they're orange
instead of white. The fruits are so juicy and pretty that I ate a couple before I
remembered that fruits of our North American species are regarded as poisonous. Well,
you'd have to eat quite a few before getting sick.
Through the binoculars I could also see who the birds were. They were four to six
chubby-looking, smallish birds with thick beaks and black and yellow plumage, reminiscent
of northern male Goldfinches in nesting plumage. They were Scrub Euphonias, which you can
see at http://www.bafrenz.com/birds/Belize06/ScEuX01.htm.
These pretty little birds occur from Mexico to Costa Rica and they're fairly common. I
do find them in scrub but also two months ago they'd sometimes flit around my breakfast
table at Ek Balam in the Yucatan. I've also seen Scrub Euphonias on rather humid but weedy
mountain slopes, so the species is somewhat flexible in its habitat requirements.
We also have Yellow-throated Euphonias here who are very similar, except that their
throats are yellow instead of black. I find this species more in the scrub however. Looks
like they'd have called this one the Scrub Euphonia.
Taxonomists have had a hard time figuring out where euphonias belong on the
evolutionary Tree of Life. When you want to know how an animal is classified
scientifically a good place on the Web to go is to the University of Michigan's Animal
Diversity Web at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html.
When I plug the Euphonia's scientific name, Euphonia, into the search box there I'm led
to a page placing them into "Family Genera Incertae Sedis." That's a fancy Latin
way of saying "Genus-position uncertain." Tanagers also appear here so neither
is their ancestory known. One of my field guides refers to euphonias as "stubby
little tanagers." |