Marañon Spinetail
Synallaxis maranonica
Very shy spinetail restricted to the Marañon Valley of northwestern Peru and extreme southern Ecuador; highly threatened due to ongoing habitat loss. Plumage is mostly gray with chestnut back, wings, and tail. Inhabits dense tangles inside forest, often in damp gullies or near rivers and streams. Hard to see well, and usually first detected by voice. Typical song is a whining “chew, pit-year” repeated every few seconds.
Identification
The Maranon spinetail is 14 to 16 cm (5.5 to 6.3 in) long and weighs 16 to 17 g (0.56 to 0.60 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a dark brownish gray face and forehead. Their crown and upper back are dark grayish brown that become more rufescent brown by the rump and uppertail coverts. Their wings are dark rufous with dark fuscous tips on the flight feathers. Their tail is dark rufous; it is graduated and the feathers have blunt tips. Their throat is pale grayish, their breast darker brownish gray, their belly a lighter brownish gray, and their flanks gray with an olive tinge. Their iris is brown, their maxilla black to dark gray, their mandible blue-gray, and their legs and feet gray to olive. Juveniles have faint dark scallops on the breast and belly and a pinkish yellow mandible.
Taxonomy
The Maranon spinetail was previously treated as a subspecies of the plain-crowned spinetail (S. gujanensis). Recognition of plumage, vocal, and genetic differences led to their separation. The Marañon spinetail is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Synallaxis maranonica
- Authority
- Taczanowski, 1879
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Synallaxis
Range and habitat
The Maranon spinetail is found in the valley of the Marañón River from far southeastern Ecuador's Zamora-Chinchipe Province south into the northern parts of Peru's departments of Cajamarca and Amazonas. It inhabits the undergrowth of semihumid gallery forest, secondary forest, and deciduous woodlands along rivers, and occurs less often at the edges of humid forest. In elevation it ranges between 650 and 1,200 m (2,100 and 3,900 ft) in Ecuador and 450 and 1,850 m (1,500 and 6,100 ft) in Peru.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The Maranon spinetail is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The Maranon spinetail feeds on arthropods. It usually forages in pairs, gleaning its prey from the ground, foliage, and small branches up to about 2 m (7 ft) above the ground.<p>Nothing is known about the Maranon spinetail's breeding biology.<p>The Maranon spinetail's song is "a very slow-paced, somewhat nasal 'kieeuuw...keeeu' ", often with several seconds between phrases. It is sung by both sexes.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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