P. crassirostris Male Skull or Vegetarian Finch is museum quality polyurethane cast. Vegetarian Finch Skull is made in USA. One of Darwin’s Finches
P. crassirostris Male Skull or Vegetarian Finch is museum quality polyurethane cast. Vegetarian Finch Skull is made in USA. One of Darwin’s Finches
The P. crassirostris or Vegetarian finch is a species of bird in the Darwin’s finch group of the tanager family Thraupidae endemic to the Galápagos Islands. It is the only member of the genus Platyspiza.
Endemic to the Galápagos, the P. crassirostris or Vegetarian finch is found on eight islands: San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, Floreana, Isabela, Marchena, Santiago, Pinta and Fernandina.
Although it was previously found on Pinzón and Santa Fé, the species is now extirpated from both islands. It is found from 0 to 1,640 ft. above sea level.
Although it is most common in montane evergreen forest, particularly the transition zone, its range also extends up into the humid zone and down into the arid zone.
The P. crassirostris or Vegetarian finch is one of Darwin’s finches, a group of closely related birds that evolved on the Galápagos Islands. The group is related to the yellow-faced grassquit which is found in South and Central America and the Caribbean.
When Darwin first collected the species in 1835, he assumed it was a finch. John Gould, who formally described the Vegetarian finch in 1837, placed it in a new genus Camarhynchus and coined the binomial name Camarhynchus crassirostris.
The vegetarian finch is now placed in the genus Platyspiza that was introduced by Robert Ridgway in 1897.
The P. crassirostris or Vegetarian finch is one of the largest Galápagos finches, measuring 6.3 in. in length and ranging from 1.0 to 1.4 oz. in mass. Its upright stance is described as “parrot-like”.
Its beak is broad and stout, with a strongly curved culmen. Males have upper parts which are olive-colored, with underparts that are whitish, with smudgy streaking on the lower breast and flanks.
Some birds show rufous on the underparts. Their lower flanks and undertail coverts are buffy, with a black hood, throat, breast and upper flanks. Their iris is dark, and the bill is black in the breeding season and horn-colored during the rest of the year.
Female P. crassirostris or Vegetarian finch are principally brown above and off-white below, with a buffy rump and flanks streaked with brown on the face, crown, upperparts, throat, breast and flanks, and show two indistinct buffy wingbars on the brown wings.
Their beak is two-toned; the upper mandible ranges in color from dusky brown to black, while the lower mandible is dull orange or dull pink.
The song of the vegetarian finch is nasal and drawn out, with each note lasting about two seconds.
Transcribed as ph’wheeeuuuuu-íííúúú, it is accented towards the end. The bird’s primary call is high-pitched and squealing, said to resemble the sound of a radio tuner. It also gives a whiny pheep.
