Ruddy Treerunner
Margarornis rubiginosus
This small forest bird is bright rufous overall with an obvious white throat and eyebrow. Similar to various spinetails and foliage-gleaners, but it’s the only small rufous-brown bird in its range with such a prominent head pattern. Usually seen singly or in pairs, often following a mixed-species flock. Found in montane forests and edges from 1200m up to treeline. Hitches up mossy branches, probing around for invertebrates.
Identification
The ruddy treerunner is 15 to 16 cm (5.9 to 6.3 in) long and weighs 17 to 24 g (0.60 to 0.85 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a buffy whitish supercilium and eyering on an otherwise dull rufescent brown face. Their crown is dull reddish brown and they have a narrow, paler reddish, collar. Their upperparts and wing coverts are reddish chestnut. Their flight feathers are dark fuscous with rufescent edges. Their tail is a slightly paler reddish chestnut than the back; the ends of the tail feathers lack barbs, giving a spiny appearance. Their throat is whitish with a buffy white lower edge. Their breast is dull rufescent brown with pale buff "Vees" on its upper part and darker buff spots on the lower. Their belly is almost unmarked dull rufescent brown and their flanks and undertail coverts are a darker chestnut brown. Their iris is dark brown to brown, their maxilla brown to black, their mandible pinkish horn to pale pinkish white, and their legs and feet variable from grayish olive to dull pinkish to grayish brown. Juveniles have less distinct markings on their breast than adults. Subspecies M. r. boultoni has a deeper buff supercilium than the nominate, with slightly darker upperparts and deeper, richer, cinnamon underparts with smaller and fewer markings.
Taxonomy
The ruddy treerunner has two subspecies, the nominate M. r. rubiginosus (Lawrence, 1865) and M. r. boultoni (Griscom, 1924).
- Scientific name
- Margarornis rubiginosus
- Authority
- Lawrence, 1865
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Margarornis
Range and habitat
The ruddy treerunner is a bird of the highlands. It has a disjunct distribution. The nominate subspecies is found from the Cordillera de Guanacaste in northern Coasta Rica south into Panama's Chiriquí Province. Subspecies M. r. boultoni is found in eastern Chiriquí and Veraguas Provinces. The species inhabits the interior and edges of montane evergreen forest at elevations between 1,200 and 3,000 m (3,900 and 9,800 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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