Vorstman's Guideto the birds of Mexico and Central America

All species › Passerines › New World sparrows

New World sparrows | Passerellidae

Amerikaanse gorzen | Chingolos

The sparrows of the New World: seed-eaters with a short conical bill, sturdy legs and a fairly long, rounded tail, mostly brown and streaked above. Many species feed on the ground in leaf litter and under shrubs, using a way of scratching typical of the family: both feet kicked backwards at once in a short hop, so that the litter flies away and seeds and insects are exposed. In the streaked species identification turns mainly on the head pattern: crown stripes, supercilium, eye-stripe and malar stripe in fixed patterns. The nest is a small cup on the ground or low in a shrub. Since about 2017 they have been placed in a family of their own, separate from the Emberizidae. In Mexico and Central America the family is very diverse: besides the many northern species that winter here there are residents such as the brushfinches of Atlapetes and Arremon in montane forest and rainforest, the Chlorospingus species, which unlike the rest move through the canopy in small flocks, juncos and towhees in the mountains, and endemics such as the rare Sierra Madre Sparrow of high grasslands in Mexico.

Native species 72 species

Species that occur here by nature: breeding birds, winter visitors and passage migrants. They are arranged by genus, in the sequence of the list.

Amphispizopsis 1 species

Amphispiza 1 species

Calamospiza 1 species

Chondestes 1 species

Spizella 6 species

Chlorospingus 6 species

Ammodramus 1 species

Arremonops 3 species

Peucaea 7 species

Arremon 6 species

Passerella 1 species

Junco 5 species

Zonotrichia 4 species

Pooecetes 1 species

Artemisiospiza 2 species

Oriturus 1 species

Passerculus 1 species

Centronyx 1 species

Xenospiza 1 species

Melospiza 3 species

Aimophila 3 species

Melozone 8 species

Pezopetes 1 species

Pipilo 3 species

Atlapetes 4 species