The Carrizal Seedeater, Amaurospiza carrizalensis, is a recently discovered species of seedeater in the family Emberizidae. It is one of a group of passerines which are frequently called finches, but are not in the family Fringillidae.
The males are gray with blue flecks, and the females are yellow.
The species has been described based on three specimens; its only known habitat -- spiny bamboo on that island -- has been cleared to allow construction of a dam, but researchers are hopeful of finding the birds living elsewhere.
Another key factor in its identification is the fact that the poorly known seedeater group had never before been found in Venezuela and the geographically closest member of the group lives on the other side of the Andes mountains in Colombia and Ecuador.
Carrizal Island, as EDELCA property, was already scheduled for deforestation for development of the Tocoma Dam, part of a major hydroelectric project along the length of the Caroni river.
The discovery of the CarrizalSeedeater is an exciting development for global bird life, but the discovery is tempered with the knowledge that we have now destroyed the place where it hid from us for so long.
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