Rusty-breasted Nunlet
Nonnula rubecula
Chunky species with a large dark eye framed by a pale eyering and large bill. Rather gray-brown overall with a grayer head, a buffy breast, and a whitish belly. Various subspecies occur, which vary in the color of the area around the bill from white to buff. Uncommon, sits motionless in the lower and middle levels of lowland and riparian forests, second growth, and forest edges where it is usually hard to spot.
Identification
The rusty-breasted nunlet is 14 to 16 cm (5.5 to 6.3 in) long and weighs 17 to 20 g (0.60 to 0.71 oz). The subspecies vary in structure and color from each other. In general, the more northerly subspecies have a longer and narrower bill and a shorter tail than the more southerly ones. <p>The nominate subspecies has what amounts to two or three color morphs. Some members of it have plain dark gray-brown upperparts and wings. Their lores are rufous and they have a whitish band from the lores that joins a white ring around the eye. Their tail is dark brown. Their throat, breast, and flanks are brown with a reddish tinge and the abdomen is whitish. Other members of the nominate are paler and grayer, especially on the crown, but in the southeast are a darker brown with a warmer brown tail. Some have a bright orange-rufous (instead of brown) throat, breast, and flanks. <p>N. r. tapanahoniensis has a very gray crown and a cinnamon tinge to the vent. N. r. duidae has a rufous chin. N. r. interfluvialis has a grayer tail and N. r. simulatrix a darker tail than the others. N. r. simplex is drab and dark while N. r. cineracea has warmer brown underparts.
Taxonomy
Taxonomists recognize the seven subspecies of rusty-breasted nunlet listed below. However, the species' taxonomy is unsettled. Some of the subspecies might be species in their own right, some might not be valid at all as separate taxa, and the nominate subspecies might actually represent two subspecies or species.
- Scientific name
- Nonnula rubecula
- Authority
- (Spix, 1824)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Bucconidae
- Genus
- Nonnula
Range and habitat
The rusty-breasted nunlet is found in two disjunct areas. The subspecies are distributed thus:<p>The rusty-breasted nunlet primarily inhabits humid terra firme and várzea forest, and is also found in secondary forest and forest edges. It can be found at any level within the forest but is most often in the midstory. In Venezuela it is usually found in areas of sandy soil; in southeastern Brazil's Paraná state it occurs in gallery forest, and in upper Amazonia it shuns igapó forest.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The rusty-breasted nunlet's diet is reported to include large arthropods, both adult and larval. The nunlet occasionally briefly joins mixed-species foraging flocks.<p>The rusty-breasted nunlet was thought to nest in a burrow, but a 2020 publication revealed that it nests in a shallow scrape on sloping ground that it roofs with twigs and leaves. Over a seven year period the authors studied 17 nests in Argentina's Misiones Province; they were in various stages of construction and use when discovered. Most clutches were of four eggs though one had three. Both sexes incubated the eggs and brooded and fed the nestlings.<p>The rusty-breasted nunlet's song is "a mewing series of 'weeip, weeip, weeip' notes (up to 20) that rise in both pitch and volume". It does not sing often.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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