Cardellina Chiapas Birding Tours

Rose-bellied Bunting

Passerina rositae · Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico

Male Rose-bellied Bunting (Passerina rositae), Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico
© Blair Dudeck, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A micro-endemic species found exclusively in the La Sepultura Reserve of Chiapas and neighbouring Oaxaca at the Sierra Tolistoque, the Rose-bellied Bunting's stunning pastel-like blue and rose plumage are one of the most memorable sights in all of birding in Mexico, with a lovely story behind its discovery.

This species was formerly known as Rosita's Bunting, a reference still maintained in the scientific name Passerina rositae. The first collector of this species was François Sumichrast, a Swiss naturalist who moved to Mexico in the 1850s. His love for his adoptive country was cemented upon meeting his beautiful wife (as says his contemporary colleague G. N. Lawrence), Rosalía ("Rosita") Nivón. The bird was named in reference to her, and his daughter, also named Rosita.1

Guide notes — Ben

Little is known of Sumichrast's romantic story here in Mexico, but we do know he arrived to Mexico in the 1850's, and married Rosalía in 1870. We can only hazard guesses at where, when, and how, Rosalía and Sumichrast met, but Sumichrast worked for a long period with his base at Santa Efigenia in Tapanatepec, owned by Rosalía's family. Rosalía's divorce from her former husband in 1861 perhaps gives a clue. The coincidence of Rosita's name and Sumichrast's discovery of this rose-coloured bunting is beautifully apt. It appears it was his colleague, George Newbold Lawrence, who decided on the name after receiving specimens from Sumichrast in New York, 1872. At the time Lawrence noted that the bird was as beautiful, if not more, than the Orange-breasted Bunting and Painted Bunting both found nearby. Rosita herself was a mystery for well over a century, listed in the reference works as nothing more than a first name. She was finally identified in 2016 by José Alberto Lobato García, a Mexican birder and biology student, who traced her through Oaxacan records and eventually contacted a living member of the Nivón family for confirmation. It is a lovely piece of detective work, and worth reading in full.2

Identification

The male's rose belly blended with pastel-blue upperparts and neat white eyering is unmistakeable. The female could potentially be confused with a female Orange-breasted Bunting, though there is just a small overlap in their range. The female Orange-breasted Bunting is slightly pale yellow and has a pale yellow eyering, as opposed to the Rose-bellied Bunting's slightly duller oakier tones with a pale cream eyering.

Distribution and habitat

Deciduous dry forests and thorn forests of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, along with moister gallery and swamp forest in the hillier parts of its range, between 150 m and 800 m.3 The bird appears to have a preference for well-preserved areas with exposed limestone rock. The use of the highly-threatened Beaucarnea recurvata leaves for nesting material suggests this may be a key to finding the species.4

Seasonality and finding the species

A year-round resident, and far easier to find during the dry season, roughly November to May, when the bird's bright colouration stands out plainly against deserted backgrounds. Once the deciduous forest leafs out with the rains, the same birds become considerably harder work. Nesting has been recorded in late June and late July, at the start of the wet season.4

Guide notes — Ben

Difficulty here is a strange one to rate. At the right site in the right months this is not a hard bird, and we would expect to find it on a morning at La Sepultura. The catch is that the entire world range is a narrow band across the Isthmus, so the challenge is logistical rather than ornithological. Get yourself to the right dry hillside and the bird does the rest.

Conservation

Highly threatened as a result of extensive wind-farm projects within the bird's range. The IUCN lists the species as Near Threatened on account of its very small range and the likelihood of decline through habitat degradation and infrastructure development, while Mexican legislation classifies it as threatened.3

The Rose-bellied Bunting is the flagship target on our La Sepultura day tour, and features on our longer trips through the Pacific slope.

See our Chiapas birding tours

Sources

  1. Boucard, A. (1884). Notice sur François Sumichrast. Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France 9: 305–312. books.google.com
  2. Lobato García, J. A. ("ElChivizcoyo"), Raty, L., Bergenholtz, B. et al. (2016). About the name of Passerina rositae. BirdForum discussion thread, in which Rosita was identified as Rosalía Nivón. birdforum.net
  3. BirdLife International (2024). Species factsheet: Rose-bellied Bunting Passerina rositae. datazone.birdlife.org
  4. Monroy-Ojeda, A., Grosselet, M. & Ruiz, G. (2013). Further contributions on the description of the nest, eggs and nesting habitat of the Mexican micro-endemic and near threatened Rose-bellied Bunting (Passerina rositae). Huitzil 14(2). scielo.org.mx
  5. Lawrence, G. N. (1874). Description of Cyanospiza rositae. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York 10: 397. biodiversitylibrary.org