Trilling Tapaculo
Scytalopus parvirostris
Tiny, compact gray bird. Females are slightly duller, with brown lower sides and rump. Like most tapaculos, they are usually very shy and rarely seen in the open. Nearly identical to Tschudi’s Tapaculo, which is found at higher elevations where the two overlap; their songs are also very different. Trilling Tapaculo’s song is a long, rapid chatter.
Identification
The trilling tapaculo is 10.5 cm (4.1 in) long. Males weigh 17.5 to 21 g (0.62 to 0.74 oz) and females 15.4 to 18 g (0.54 to 0.63 oz). Adult males are usually dark gray above and lighter gray below, though sometimes dark gray all over. The flanks and crissum (the area around the cloaca) are dark reddish brown with dusky bars. The female is similar to the male but paler with a dark brown wash. The juvenile is similar to the female with the addition of a scaly appearance due to yellowish edges to feathers.
Taxonomy
The trilling tapaculo was previously considered a subspecies of unicolored tapaculo (Scytalopus unicolor) but was elevated to species status based on differences in their vocalizations. Though it is monophyletic, there are song variations in different parts of its range that suggest that there might be undefined subspecies.
- Scientific name
- Scytalopus parvirostris
- Authority
- Zimmer, JT, 1939
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Rhinocryptidae
- Genus
- Scytalopus
Range and habitat
The trilling tapaculo is found on the east slope of the Andes from southern Amazonas, Peru, southeastward to western Santa Cruz in Bolivia. It inhabits the undergrowth of humid montane forest between the elevations of 1,800 and 2,500 m (5,900 and 8,200 ft) in Peru. In Bolivia it is found from 2,000 to 3,200 m (6,600 to 10,500 ft) and locally to 3,300 m (10,800 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The trilling tapaculo forages in dense undergrowth alone or in pairs, on or near the ground. Its diet has not been studied.<p>Until a 2014 publication nothing was known about the trilling tapaculo's breeding biology other than that a juvenile was collected in July. In 2009 researchers discovered a nest in Peru. It was a globe with an outer layer mostly of small rootlets lined mostly with fern scales. It was constructed in a cavity in a rotten tree and contained two eggs. The authors monitored incubation but did not specify whether one or both adults incubated. The eggs hatched seven days after discovery and the nestlings disappeared soon after; they were too young to have fledged so the authors concluded that the nest had been predated.<p>The trilling tapaculo's song gives it its name. The trill's pace varies geographically, at 21 notes per second in central Peru [1], 14 in southern Peru [2], and 20 to 28 in Bolivia [3]. Its scold is similar but shorter [4] and it also has a single-note call [5].
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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