Rufous-rumped Foliage-gleaner
Neophilydor erythrocercum
A medium-sized bird, brownish above and pale buff below, with a bright rufous rump and tail and a distinctive buffy line behind the eye. Found in tall rainforest, where it occurs mainly in the midstory and canopy, but occasionally in the understory. Will follow mixed species flocks at all levels. Feeds on insects and forages actively, often investigating dead leaf clusters and other accumulations of detritus. Song is a short, weak series of squeaking notes that fades away; call is a hard doubled note. Most similar to Rufous-tailed Foliage-gleaner but somewhat larger and more likely to occur at lower levels in the forest; both tail and rump are rufous in Rufous-rumped.
Identification
The rufous-rumped foliage-gleaner is about 14 to 17 cm (5.5 to 6.7 in) long and weighs 18 to 31 g (0.63 to 1.1 oz). Male and female plumages are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a pale tawny-buff eyering and supercilium on an otherwise dark fuscous brown face. Their crown and back are dark olive-brown and their rump and uppertail coverts bright chestnut. Their tail is bright rufous and their wings are dark olive-brown. Their throat is pale yellowish buff, their breast and belly medium brownish with an olive tinge, and their flanks and undertail coverts a slightly darker brownish with a dark rufescent tinge. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their maxilla blackish to brownish, their mandible horn-brown to pinkish gray, and their legs and feet grayish green to yellowish olive. Juveniles have a more rufous-orange supercillium, a more rufescent crown, and less yellowish underparts than adults.<p>Subspecies P. e. lyra is similar to the nominate but with a redder back, brighter and cinnamon-tinged upperwing coverts and flight feathers, and slightly more buffy underparts. It has some clinal variation. P. e. suboles is similar to lyra with paler underparts and more olivaceous flight feathers. P. e. subfulvum has a less rufous rump and slightly more ochraceous underparts than the nominate. P. e. ochrogaster differs the most from the nominate and the other subspecies. It has a brighter ochraceous supercilium and throat than they, a more rufous rump, and a tawny olivaceous tinge to its underparts.
Taxonomy
The rufous-rumped foliage-gleaner has these five subspecies:<p>Early in the twentieth century P. e. subfulvum was treated as a separate species. In the late twentieth century at least one taxonomic system treated P. e. erythrocercum as a separate species, and some authors advocate returning to that treatment. What is now the nominate subspecies of the slaty-winged foliage-gleaner (P. fuscipenne fuscipenne) was for a time treated as subspecies of the rufous-rumped.
- Scientific name
- Neophilydor erythrocercum
- Authority
- (Pelzeln, 1859)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Neophilydor
Range and habitat
The rufous-rumped foliage-gleaner is mostly a bird of the Amazon Basin. Its subspecies are found thus:<p>The four Amazonian subspecies of the rufous-rumped foliage-gleaner inhabit tropical evergreen forest, mainly terra firme but also vázea. In elevation they range as high as 1,300 m (4,300 ft). Subspecies P. e. ochrogaster inhabits montane evergreen forest at elevations between 800 and 1,650 m (2,600 and 5,400 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The rufous-rumped foliage-gleaner is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The rufous-rumped foliage-gleaner feeds on a wide variety of arthropods. It forages singly and in pairs, usually as members of a mixed-species feeding flock. It feeds primarily in the subcanopy but regularly does so in the mid-storey and canopy. It specializes in gleaning and pulling prey from dead leaves and also feeds at palm fronds and at debris in vine tangles. It often maneuvers acrobatically to reach prey.<p>Little is known about the rufous-rumped foliage-gleaner's breeding biology. It nests during the dry season in French Guiana but its season elsewhere has not been defined. One nest was in a deep hole in a tree stump; it had a pad of wood fibers at the bottom and contained two eggs.<p>The rufous-rumped foliage-gleaner's song is "a slightly ascending and then descending series of 4–6 high notes, 'chu, chee, chee, chéé, chu' ". Its call is a "shrill 'wheeeeyk' and 'cheeyu' or 'chak' ".
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Centropus leucogaster
A large forest coucal with a black throat and chest and a white belly. Western populations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and extreme western Uganda are sometimes separated as Neumann’s Coucal based on their smaller size, but look very similar to eastern Black-throated Coucal populations. The similar Gabon Coucal, which has a rufous belly, replaces Black-throated in Central African forests. Black-throated typically gives a deep, bubbling, booming call series of up to 20 notes that fall and then rise in pitch. This call can be heard day or night.
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