White-banded Mockingbird
Mimus triurus
Distinctive mockingbird with large white wing patches, visible at rest and spectacular in flight. It is largely whitish below with a gray head and cinnamon rump. The tail is mostly white with black central feathers. Found in savannas and other semiopen areas. The song is variable and includes songs of other species.
Identification
The white-banded mockingbird is 20 to 23.5 cm (7.9 to 9.3 in) long and weighs 49 to 54 g (1.7 to 1.9 oz). The male is slightly larger than the female. Adults have a grayish crown, a white supercilium, a blackish line through the eye, and speckled cheeks. Their upperparts are smoky gray blending to reddish cinnamon on the rump. The central third of the tail is black and the outer feathers white. The folded wing shows a broad white band; the rest of the wing is blackish. The white on the wings and tail are conspicuous in flight. The adults are mostly whitish below; the sides and flanks have a cinnamon wash and the vent area is buffy. The juvenile is similar but with a spotted breast and less white in the wing.
Taxonomy
The white-banded mockingbird and the brown-backed mockingbird (Mimus dorsalis) are sister species. Both are monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Mimus triurus
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1818)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Mimidae
- Genus
- Mimus
Range and habitat
The white-banded mockingbird breeds primarily in central Argentina. In the non-breeding season it apparently withdraws from the southernmost part of its range and is also found in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It is suspected to regularly breed in all of these countries except Brazil and Chile. Vagrants have been recorded in Peru and the Falkland Islands.<p>The white-banded mockingbird inhabits a variety of landscapes including low woodlands, savanna, open brushy country, steppe, and around human habitations. It is mostly found below 500 m (1,600 ft) of elevation but breeds as high as 2,600 m (8,500 ft) in northern Argentina and as a non-breeder reaches higher in Bolivia and Chile.
- Breeding range
- SA : c Argentina
- Non-breeding range
- to Bolivia and s Brazil
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
- Population trend
- unknown
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Ochre-flanked Tapaculo
Eugralla paradoxa
Heard but rarely seen; a retiring little gray bird of bamboo thickets and other dense shrubbery at forest edges, along streams, and in wooded patches. Can be confiding if an observer is quiet. Feeds by hopping quickly on the ground and through bamboo. Plumage is leaden blue-gray overall with faint paler spectacles, rich buffy flanks, and pale legs. Slightly larger and stouter-billed than Magellanic Tapaculo, which often occurs alongside Ochre-flanked in bamboo thickets (bill of Magellanic is slender).
Red-billed Oxpecker
Buphagus erythroryncha
A bulbul-sized olive-brown bird that sports a diagnostic all-red bill and a red eye surrounded by a fleshy yellow wattle. The juvenile lacks the bright bill and eye coloration. Small groups occur in savanna and farmland, where they require large wild ungulates and domestic stock to forage on; they clamber agilely over host mammals, gleaning ticks, mites, and other ectoparasites, and occasionally drinking host blood. As they fly between large mammals, they give a distinctive “tsik-tsik” call. The similar Yellow-billed Oxpecker differs from Red-billed Oxpecker by having a yellow bill base and pale rump and lacking an eye-wattle.
Black-and-cinnamon Fantail
Rhipidura nigrocinnamomea
A fairly small, long-tailed bird of montane forest on Mindanao. Rufous above with darker wings, a tail frequently held cocked and fanned, pale orange underparts, a black hood, and a broad white eyebrow. Forages in the understory for insects and often joins mixed-species flocks. Bundok Flycatcher and Eyebrowed Thrush both have orange chest, a black head, and a white brow, but Black-and-cinnamon Fantail is larger than the flycatcher and smaller than the thrush, with a totally different shape and habits. Voice includes a sharp “gyuk!” or grating chatter.
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