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Black-faced Grassquit at Long Key State Park
Posted by Angel & Mariel
over 8 years ago
10 Comments
Hey all,
At Long Key SP in search of Key West Quail-dove, which we did not see, but we did find this great bird! It was seen at the start of the campground, feeding in first couple of campsites. Access to the campground is limited to registered campers. You may be able to walk the beach along the campground without having to be a registered camper.
We have not seen the Grassquit after our initial observation.
Park is located @ 67400 Overseas Hwy, Layton, FL
Nature is Awesome
Angel & Mariel
natureisawesometours@hotmail.com
Comments
3 BFGRs in 3 years? Why can't we trade one out for a Yellow-faced Grassquit?
A thousand forks when all you need is a spoon...
Unlike Black-faced Grassquit, Yellow-faced is very common in the pet trade, so any sighting of this species in South Florida will probably be assumed to be an escapee. Which begs the question, if they are so common, why aren't we finding them all the time?
The keeping of grassquits and other "good singing" species as caged birds is mostly a part of the Latin American culture. In most countries, like Cuba, the capturing and caging of wild birds is illegal but still happens often. The species of choice are Cuban Grassquit and Cuban Bullfinch to name a few. This practice has unfortunately been brought over to South Florida (Painted Bunting as an example), where some of these bird species were even smuggled in (don't know if this still happens).
The more common Yellow-faced Grassquit is considered a "weak" singer by bird enthusiasts, and therefore not a species of choice for the illegal pet trade (again, as far as singing goes). That and strict laws against the smuggling of wild birds into the states are cases for the origin of any YFGRs that may show up (at least I'd like to think that). Also, it helps when females show up too. I'm not sure however, within the legal system, how popular of a species this is and how successfully bred it is.
-RJ
Had a YFGR on Loggerhead Key many years ago in the Dry Tortugas. Probably a wild bird and singing his little head off as the Peregrine Falcon and Merlin dived bobbed it. It made it as least as long as we were on the island.
To answer your question about how commong the Yellow-faced Grassquit is in the pet trade, here's a video with a cage full of them in Miami:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzdeRVvN3gs
Looik up this species for sale on the internet and you get an idea about how readily available it is.
In 2014 I witnessed a club meeting of some sort at A.D. Barnes Park, where cages with singing male birds (~10 cages) were lined up on stands or on the ground. The event was near the NE perimeter of the park. I casually glassed the bird species, trying to figure out the represented species and to support RJ's comment, I only noticed one male Yellow-faced Grassquit.
Robin, I still see that group of guys with the bird cages in the described area at A.D. Barnes park these days. My grandmother told me a story how Cubans would smuggle grassquits in their hats through the Miami airport. I'm sure it's happening today except not with hats though.
My first thought was to buy some for release. Good idea or bad?
Yes, any sighting of YFGR is suspect. But the species is officially on the Florida list and therefore on the ABA list as a countable bird. So, in past times, the records committee/s deemed it to be a naturally occurring vagrant. We (the birding community in general and the FOSRC) are a bit more cynical these days--perhaps because we have more insight about pet trade birds. It's a bit of a dilemma, if you are finicky about having only "countable" birds on your list.
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