Sporophila maximiliani
The Great-billed Seed Finch (*Sporophila maximiliani*), a striking member of the Thraupidae family (tanagers and allies), is a small yet robust Neotropical passerine instantly recognizable by its proportionately massive, conical bill. Males are spectacularly patterned, featuring a glossy black head, upperparts, and a distinct breast band contrasting sharply with a white belly, under-tail coverts, and a prominent white wing speculum, which can appear as a broad bar in flight. Females, in contr...
Found primarily in tall, moist grasslands, savannas, and swampy areas, often near water bodies or at the edges of gallery forests. Typically occurs at low elevations, generally below 600 meters.
Feeds almost exclusively on the seeds of various grasses and herbaceous plants, using its powerful bill to crack open tough husks; occasionally supplements its diet with small insects.
Great-billed Seed Finches are diurnal, spending most of their active hours foraging for seeds among dense vegetation or on the ground. Males establish and defend breeding territories through persistent, often elaborate and melodious songs delivered from prominent perches atop tall grasses or shru...
The Great-billed Seed Finch is found across a fragmented distribution in central South America, primarily within Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and northern Argentina. In Brazil, its range extends from the Amazon basin's south-eastern edges through the Pantanal and Cerrado biomes, reaching parts of t...
Vulnerable
- The Great-billed Seed Finch possesses one of the largest bills proportionally among all *Sporophila* species, an adaptation for cracking particularly tough seeds. - Its scientific epithet "maximiliani" honors Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied, a pioneering German naturalist who explored Brazil ...