Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Passeriformes > Emberizidae > Melozone > Melozone crissalis

Melozone crissalis (California Towhee)

Synonyms: Kieneria crissalis; Pipilo crissalis
Language: Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The California towhee (Melozone crissalis) is a bird of the family Emberizidae, native to the coastal regions of western Oregon and California in the United States and Baja California Sur in Mexico. The taxonomy of this species has been debated. At the higher level, some authors place the towhees in the family Fringillidae. Within the group, there has been debate about whether the distinction between this species and the similar canyon towhee (Melozone fuscus) should be at the specific or subspecific level. The two populations are quite isolated from each other, and molecular genetics seems to have settled the matter in favour of two distinct species for the present. On the other hand there seems to be little distinction between the northern and Baja Californian populations within M. criss
View Wikipedia Record: Melozone crissalis

Infraspecies

Melozone crissalis albigula
Melozone crissalis aripolia
Melozone crissalis bullata
Melozone crissalis carolae
Melozone crissalis crissalis
Melozone crissalis eremophila
Melozone crissalis petulans
Melozone crissalis senicula

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
11
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 3.33322
EDGE Score: 1.46631
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  52 grams
Breeding Habitat [2]  Chaparral
Wintering Geography [2]  Non-migrartory
Wintering Habitat [2]  Chaparral
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Frugivore, Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fruit [3]  10 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  20 %
Diet - Plants [3]  10 %
Diet - Seeds [3]  60 %
Forages - Mid-High [3]  20 %
Forages - Understory [3]  30 %
Forages - Ground [3]  50 %
Clutch Size [5]  4
Clutches / Year [4]  2
Global Population (2017 est.) [2]  8,400,000
Incubation [4]  13 days
Mating System [6]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [4]  13 years

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
California Floristic Province Mexico, United States No
Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Mexico, United States No

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 5Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 6Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 7Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 8Patterns of frugivory, seed dispersal and predation of blue fan palms (Brahea armata) in oases of northern Baja California, E.V. Wehncke, X.L. Medellín, E. Ezcurra, Journal of Arid Environments 73 (2009) 773–783
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0