Pyrrhuloxia
| Pyrrhuloxia | |
|---|---|
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| Male in Tucson, Arizona, US | |
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| Female desert cardinal | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Cardinalidae |
| Genus: | Cardinalis |
| Species: | C. sinuatus |
| Binomial name | |
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Cardinalis sinuatus Bonaparte, 1838 |
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The pyrrhuloxia or desert cardinal (Cardinalis sinuatus) is a medium-sized North American song bird found in the American southwest and northern Mexico. This distinctive species with a short, stout bill, red crest and wings, closely resembles the northern and the vermilion cardinals which are in the same genus.
The desert cardinal is one of three birds in the genus Cardinalis and is included in the family Cardinalidae, a group of passerine birds found in North and South America.
Its name of pyrrhuloxia - once part of its scientific name - comes from Greek terms describing its coloration (πυρρος = pyrrhos = reddish or orange) and the shape of its bill (λοξος = loxos = oblique). The common name, desert cardinal, refers to it inhabiting the southwest, and often arid regions, of the North American continent.
The desert cardinal is a medium-sized song bird where the length for both sexes is approximately 8.3 in (21 cm), while the average weight is 0.8–1.5 oz (24–43 g).
The most obvious differences between the male desert cardinal and the northern cardinal are in their coloring. The desert cardinal is predominantly brownish-gray with a red breast, a red mask, and a yellow parrot-like bill that is stout and rounded. The females of the two species resemble each other much more closely, but the shapes of their bills are diagnostic. The songs of the two species are identical, though the pyrrhuloxia's is not quite as loud. This cardinal retains the distinctive long pointed red crest present in all species.
The pyrrhuloxia is a year-round resident of desert scrub and mesquite thickets, in the U.S. states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas and woodland edges in Mexico. It occupies the southwestern half of Texas, approximately the southern third of New Mexico, and southeastern region of Arizona. Its range flows further south inhabiting areas from the west to east coast of Mexico north of the Sierra Madre del Sur, Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and Isthmus of Tehuantepec, whilst excluding the Sierra Madre Occidental. An individual of the species has reportedly been seen as far away from its dominant range as Costa Mesa, California in Orange County.
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Wikipedia