Cipo Canastero
Asthenes luizae
Distinctive ovenbird with a long, graduated tail that is often held cocked. Mostly gray with a rufous-chestnut tail. Note the white chin with fine black streaks. Found in grassy areas with rocks, where it usually forages on the ground.
Identification
The Cipo canastero is about 17 cm (6.7 in) long and weighs 25.5 to 30.5 g (0.90 to 1.1 oz). It has a rather short bill and a medium-length tail. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have narrow whitish supercilium and a dark brown or blackish brown line through the eye on an otherwise gray-brown face with fine blackish streaks. Their crown is warm brown and their back and rump grayish brown. Their wings are mostly dull dark brown with whitish brown edges on some flight feathers. Their tail's innermost pair of feathers are dark brown and the rest chestnut-rufous. Their chin and the center of their upper throat are white with thin black streaks. The sides of their throat and their underparts are gray with a dusky olive wash on the center of the belly and a chestnut wash on their undertail coverts. Their iris is blackish to brown, their maxilla dark gray with a black tip, their mandible dark gray with a paler gray base, and their legs and feet dull pinkish to gray.
Taxonomy
The Cipo canastero was described in 1990 from a specimen collected in December 1985 in the Serra do Cipo. There is some evidence that the species belongs in its own genus.<p>The Cipo canastero is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Asthenes luizae
- Authority
- Vielliard, 1990
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Asthenes
Range and habitat
The Cipo canastero is found in a few locations in the Espinhaço Mountains of north-central and east-central Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil. It inhabits areas of rocky outcrops and bushy vegetation in the grasslands of the campos rupestres. In elevation it ranges from 900 to 1,500 m (3,000 to 4,900 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The Cipo canastero is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The Cipo canastero feeds on arthropods. It forages singly or in pairs, gleaning its prey from rocks and the ground.<p>The Cipo canastero builds a spherical or cylindrical nest of sticks near the ground in a bush. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.<p>The Cipo canastero's song is a "descending series of about 12 notes 'tseeptseep---' ". Its call is a "high 'tjip' ".
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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