All items sold on this website are polyurethane resin replicas, made in USA. No real or natural bone is available on this site.
Platyspiza crassirostris Skull Replica or Vegetarian Finch is museum quality polyurethane cast. Platyspiza crassirostris Skull Replica is 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Made in USA. Skull is Male. One of Darwin’s Finches.
The Platyspiza 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 Platyspiza crassirostris or Vegetarian finch is found on eight islands: San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, Floreana, Isabela, Marchena, Santiago, Pinta and Fernandina.
The Platyspiza crassirostris or Vegetarian finch is one of Darwin’s finches, a group of closely related birds that evolved on the Galápagos Islands.
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 Platyspiza 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 Platyspiza 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.
As its name suggests, the vegetarian finch is largely a plant-eater. It feeds primarily on buds, leaves, flowers and fruit, and will strip the bark off twigs to get to the cambium and phloem which lies underneath.
Although it forages mainly in trees, it will descend to the ground to search for fallen fruits and young plant shoots.
It also occasionally eats caterpillars. It feeds primarily at mid-levels, in what has been described as a rather leisurely manner.
Because its principal food items are soft, the vegetarian finch has a beak morphology unlike those of Darwin’s finches which specialize on hard seeds.
Described as parrot-like, the beak is small and stout, with a steep profile and a strong curve in the upper mandible.
Its primary function is food manipulation at the tip, rather than seed crushing at the base.
The vegetarian finch has a disproportionately large gizzard for its size, as well as a long intestine and a disproportionately small heart. These allow it to process the relatively indigestible leaves and buds that make up a large proportion of its diet.
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.
