LivingInPatagonia.com

Chingolo or Rufous-collared Sparrow

Written by Shanie

In celebration of our Tahoe friends visiting — one of whom has a PhD in birds — I thought I’d add another fowl to the entries.

The chingolo or rufuous-collared sparrow has been of interest to scientists since the 1970s because of its large range of calls.

Known to have different songs between sexes and to use varying pitches for communicating situations, changes in melody occur in location of the bird, as well. Four example, although the chingolo is found from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, groupings that have been studied in Argentina have a different song than others of the same species located in other Latin America countries.

A social bird that plays in small flocks in open and semi-open areas, the chingolo enjoys eating seeds, insects and spiders. There are approximately 25 different sub-species of chingolo, with the medium size breeds living in Patagonia.