Ochre-throated Foliage-gleaner
Automolus ochrolaemus
Skulking and generally inconspicuous brown bird of humid tropical forest. Found as singles or pairs, clambering in vine tangles or other dense understory, at times in leaf litter on the forest floor; usually difficult to see clearly. Note the rich buffy throat, conspicuous buffy eyebrow and eyering, and rusty tail on an otherwise plain dark brownish bird. Song is a descending series of nasal notes, speeding up and often sputtering at the end. Occurs from central Panama (where approaches the range of Fawn-throated Foliage-gleaner, and best distinguished by voice) throughout much of northern South America, to central Brazil.
Identification
The ochre-throated foliage-gleaner is 18 to 20 cm (7.1 to 7.9 in) long and weighs 30 to 46 g (1.1 to 1.6 oz). It is a fairly large member of its genus and has a shortish and heavy bill. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies A. o. ochrolaemus have a mostly dark brownish face with a bold buff eyering and stripe behind the eye, faint reddish streaks on the ear coverts, and an ochraceous-buff malar area with faint dark flecks. Their crown and nape are dark brown with a faint blackish brown scallop pattern. Their back and rump are rich dark brown that blends to dark chestnut uppertail coverts. Their wing coverts are rich dark brown and their flight feathers slightly paler and more rufescent. Their tail is dark chestnut. Their throat is deep buff, their breast is streaked with medium brown and ochraceous buff, and their belly is brown. Their flanks are a darker and more rufescent brown and their undertail coverts dull chestnut. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their maxilla blackish horn, gray, or horn brown, their mandible greenish buff to gray, and their legs and feet olive, greenish brown, or greenish gray. Juveniles are slightly duller than adults, with a less obvious eyering, a rufous tinge to the face, a chestnut tinge to the crown, and slightly mottled throat and breast.<p>The ochre-throated foliage-gleaner subspecies A. o. pallidigularis is the palest and dullest, with a nearly white throat and dull brown underparts that have no ochraceous tinge. A. o. auricularis is larger and duller than the nominate. Its back is more grayish olive and its underparts paler with less streaking. A. o. turdinus has a paler throat and slightly less ochraceous underparts than the nominate. Its underparts are intermediate in tone and markings between the nominate and auricularis.
Taxonomy
The ochre-throated foliage-gleaner's taxonomy is unsettled. Until July 2023 the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) called A. ochrolaemus the buff-throated foliage gleaner and assigned it these six subspecies:<p>The Clements taxonomy added a seventh, A. o. amusos (Peters, 1929). BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World does not recognize A. o. amusos but includes A. o. exsertus as the seventh subspecies. The IOC, Clements, and the American Ornithological Society previously recognized exsertus as a separate species, the Chiriqui foliage-gleaner.<p>In July 2023 the IOC split A. o. cervinigularis and A. o. hypophaeus from the buff-throated to form the new species fawn-throated foliage-gleaner, which by the principle of priority took the binomial A. cervinigularis. The IOC renamed the remaining four subspecies the ochre-throated foliage-gleaner to avoid confusion with the former, larger, buff-throated species. It retains the former binomial A. ochrolaemus. In October 2023 the Clements taxonomy accepted the same split and deleted A. o. amusos entirely. The other systems retain their own versions of the previous seven-subspecies buff-throated foliage-gleaner<p>This article follows the four-subspecies model.
- Scientific name
- Automolus ochrolaemus
- Authority
- (Tschudi, 1844)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Automolus
Range and habitat
The subspecies of the ochre-throated foliage-gleaner are found thus:<p>The ochre-throated foliage-gleaner inhabits a variety of forested landscapes across its very large range. In Panama it occurs in lowland rainforest and secondary forest up to an elevation of about 1,500 m (4,900 ft). In most of the Amazon Basin it occurs in transitional forest, seasonally flooded várzea forest, and swamp forest between sea level and about 1,000 m (3,300 ft). West of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador it typically occurs in secondary forest up to about 800 m (2,600 ft). Locally along the Andes it reaches 1,400 m (4,600 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The ochre-throated foliage-gleaner is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The ochre-throated foliage-gleaner feeds mostly on a variety of insects, spiders, and vertebrates like small frogs. It forages singly or in pairs and often (perhaps usually) joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It forages from the forest's undergrowth to its mid-storey, acrobatically gleaning and pulling prey from epiphytes, debris, and especially from clumps of dead leaves as it hops along branches and vines. In Central America it has also been observed foraging on the ground by flipping aside leaf litter.<p>The only information on the ochre-throated foliage-gleaner's breeding biology comes from a 1929 description of a nest in Panama. It was a shallow but bulky cup of leaf stems in a chamber at the end of a tunnel excavated in an earthen stream bank.<p>The ochre-throated foliage-gleaner's song appears similar among its subspecies. It sings mostly at dawn and dusk. In Brazil it is a "series of 3-4 well-separated, descending 'keh-keh-keh-kreh' notes". In Ecuador it is "a short descending series of well-enunciated notes, e.g. 'kee-kee-ke-krr' or 'ki, ki, ki-ki-ke-ke-krr' ". Other descriptions from South America include "kee-kee-krr-krr", "jee, jee, ju-ju-ja", and "ki, ki, ke-ke-kukukrrr". Its calls include a "nasal 'rack' " and a "downslurred, dry 'krèeh' ".
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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