Rusty-winged Barbtail
Premnornis guttuliger
Small and rather confusing brownish bird of cloud forest understory. Fairly warm brown, especially on wings and tail, with extensive buffy spotting on underparts and vague buffy eyebrow. Similar to foliage-gleaners but much smaller, closer to a spinetail in size. Spotted Barbtail is darker brown, lacking bright rufous tones on wings and tail. Usually seen singly or in pairs, often with a mixed-species flock. Sticks to the understory, where it often pokes around clusters of dead leaves or vine tangles. Found from 1,600–2,300m in the Andes from Venezuela to Peru.
Identification
The rusty-winged barbtail is 13 to 14.5 cm (5.1 to 5.7 in) long and weighs 13 to 17 g (0.46 to 0.60 oz). The sexes' plumages are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a pale buffish or brownish buff supercilium and a dark brown stripe behind the eye; the rest of their face is streaked brown and buff. Their crown is dark olive-brown with a faint scallop pattern. The sides of their neck and upper back are brownish with pale buff spots, their lower back is browner and unspotted, their rump is brown with a faint rufescent tinge, and their uppertail coverts are chestnut. Their tail is chestnut; its feathers are wide and terminate in the short bare namesake barbs or "spines". (Confusingly, these "barbs" are formed by the absence of the feather barbs that line the feather's shaft.) Their wing coverts are dark brownish with wide rufescent brown edges that form indistinct wing bars. Their flight feathers are dark fuscous with rufescent edges. Their throat is golden-buff with faint dark speckles, their breast dark brownish with golden-buff "teardrops", their belly dark brownish with golden-buff streaks on its upper half, and their flanks and undertail coverts rufescent brown. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their maxilla black to dark brownish, their mandible pinkish, pinkish gray, or dull ivory, and their legs and feet gray to blue-gray to pinkish gray. Juveniles have buff streaks on their back and rump and heavier spots on rufous-washed underparts than adults. Subspecies P. g. venezuelanus has a darker, less rufous and more olivaceous crown and back than the nominate.
Taxonomy
The rusty-winged barbtail is the only member of its genus. It has two subspecies, the nominate P. g. guttuliger (Sclater, PL, 1864) and P. g. venezuelanus (Phelps, WH & Phelps, WH Jr, 1956).<p>The rusty-winged barbtail is a sister species of the two species in genus Tarphonomus and the two of them are sister to the tuftedcheeks of genus Pseudocolaptes. The rusty-winged barbtail is not closely related to the two barbtails of genus Premnoplex nor to the Roraiman barbtail (Roraimia adjusta).
- Scientific name
- Premnornis guttuliger
- Authority
- (Sclater, PL, 1864)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Premnornis
Range and habitat
The nominate subspecies of the rusty-winged barbtail is found in all three Andean ranges of Colombia and south through the Andes of Ecuador into those of Peru as far as the Department of Puno. Though the IUCN lists its range as extending into Bolivia, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society has no records from that country. Subspecies P. g. venezuelanus is found in the Serranía del Perijá that straddles the Colombia/Venezuela border and in the Andes of Venezuela's Táchira state. It inhabits subtropical montane evergreen forest. In elevation it ranges between 1,400 and 2,700 m (4,600 and 8,900 ft) in Colombia and mostly between 1,600 and 2,300 m (5,200 and 7,500 ft) in Ecuador. It occurs locally as low as 1,300 m (4,300 ft) in Peru.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Elliotomyia chionogaster
Medium-sized hummingbird of middle and high elevations. Green above, white below, with a pinkish lower mandible. Found around forest edges and scrubby open habitats. Distinguished with care from the very similar Green-and-white Hummingbird by the white extending lower onto the underside of the tail, and by its sometimes lighter pink lower mandible; it is also typically found in more open habitats than that species.
Buru Jungle Flycatcher
Eumyias additus
A stout-billed flycatcher with brown upperparts, rufous tail and wings, and white underside, with subtle darker streaks on the breast. Inhabits forests in the lower foothills and mountains. No similar flycatchers in its limited range on the island of Buru. Note whitish underside, faint breast streaking, and relatively broad bill for a flycatcher. Gives a slow, deliberate whistled song with around twenty clear fluty notes that only slightly fluctuate in pitch.
White-eyed Robin
Pachycephalopsis poliosoma
A medium-sized bird of mid-montane forest understory. Sooty gray color, paler on the belly, darker on the face and wing. Note the pale eye and white throat contrasting with the dark face. Birds on the Huon Peninsular have a gray throat. Perches on low branches, flicking tail and scanning the ground for insect prey. Smoky and Blue-gray Robins have limited altitudinal overlap, but White-eyed is usually found at lower elevations, has a white eye and usually a white throat. Voice, a loud, upslurred whistle “wit!”. Also, a rising series of notes, first whistled then becoming raspier and accelerating.
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