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Posted by Larry Manfredi on 10:00:24 08/21/12
In Reply to: Re: Cuban Grassquit posted by Dotty Robbins
The status of Cuban Grassquit and Yellow-faced Grassquit is understandable. Not so with Black-faced Grassquit. Black-faced Grassquit are only vagrants to Cuban and are not kept as cage birds for that reason. They are not as colorful and don't sing as nice as the other two. So my two points are:
Not found in Cuba and number two, not as colorful and the song is not as nice. So this leaves this bird out of the quagmire of trying to decide if it has escaped captivity. I have never seen one in captivity in Miami or in Cuba or anywhere in the West Indies where it occurs. I have asked at pet stores if they ever get Black-faced Grassquits or even know what they are. All of the people that I talked to don't even know what a Black-faced Grassquit is. They certainly know the birds that are commonly found in Cuba. Keeping cage birds in Cuba and Miami and is a very popular cultural thing. It seems to be a very male dominated hobby to show off your beautiful birds. It is a popular thing to see whose bird sings the best or whose is the most beautiful. I have seen this at a park in Hialeah where everyone hangs their bird cages along a fence to admire these wonderful birds. It is a shame though for the birds, that so many of them get trapped for this purpose.
Larry Manfredi
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