• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note

Melozone biarcuata and M. cabanisi (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) were previously lumped as M. biarcuata following AOU (1998 & supplements); Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993); Stotz et al. (1996).

 

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2020	Near Threatened	B1b(iii,v)
2019	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	5,300 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	20000-49999 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2019
Population trend	decreasing	-	estimated	-
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	3-14%	-	-	-
Generation length	2.4 years	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	100%	-	-	-

Population justification: The species is common and regularly observed throughout its range (del Hoyo et al. 2020, eBird 2020). The population size is estimated to number fewer than 50,000 mature individuals (Partners in Flight 2019); therefore, it is placed here in the band 20,000-49,999 mature individuals.

Trend justification: Local declines have been recorded (del Hoyo et al. 2020). Partners in Flight (2019) report that the decline has been moderate, i.e. likely between 15% and 50% between 1970 and 2017 (see Panjabi et al. 2019). This roughly equates to a decline of 3-14% over ten years for this species.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Costa Rica	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Plantations	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	major	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	suitable	resident
Altitude	500 - 2100 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Problematic native species/diseases - Molothrus aeneus	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Causing/Could cause fluctuations		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Reduced reproductive success
Residential & commercial development	Housing & urban areas	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem conversion

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Costa Rican Ground-sparrow Melozone cabanisi. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/costa-rican-ground-sparrow-melozone-cabanisi on 22/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/12/2024.