Appearance
Adult blue-black grassquits are 10.2 cm long and weigh 9.3 g. They have a slender conical black bill. The male is glossy blue-black, with a black tail and wings; the white inner underwing is visible in flight or display. Female and immature birds have brown upperparts and dark-streaked buff underparts.
Naming
It is the only member of the genus "Volatinia".
Behavior
Social monogamous, extra-pair fertilizations, intraspecific parasitism, and quasi-parasitism are commonly found. During the breeding season, males defend small territories, about 13,0 - 72,5 m2, dominant males are normally lighter.The male has a jumping display, often performed for long periods, which gives rise to the local name "johnny jump-up". This is accompanied by a persistent wheezing "jweeee" call, jumping several times in a minute. The extravagant display also has a cost of calling attention of the predator, thus displaying increased nest predation.
Predation is the main cause of breeding failure, and predator vocalizations can cause an immune-related reaction to this species. Nests are small cups of rootlets found in herbaceous vegetation 10–50 cm high, clustered at a landscape, and placed preferably at high complex habitat spots. Nests are built by both sexes.
Food
Blue-black grassquits will often form flocks when not breeding. They eat seeds, mostly on the ground.References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
