Slaty-winged Foliage-gleaner
Neophilydor fuscipenne
Fairly small buffy-chestnut bird with dark grayish wings. The pale buffy eyering and eyebrow and bright rusty tail stand out. Sexes similar. Occurs from Panama to western Ecuador, in the understory and middle levels of foothill forest up to around 1,200 m. Usually seen singly or in pairs, following a mixed-species flock. Like other foliage-gleaners, often hitches along branches and probes into clusters of dead leaves. In range perhaps most similar to Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner, but Slaty-winged is brighter buffy on the face and neck and has darker wings.
Identification
The slaty-winged foliage-gleaner is about 17 cm (6.7 in) long and weighs 25 to 28 g (0.88 to 0.99 oz). Male and female plumages are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a pale rufescent ochre supercilium, a dark brownish band behind the eye, fuscous and buff lores, and dark brownish ear coverts with some rusty inclusions. Their crown is dark brown with faint rufescent streaks and they have an indistinct dark rusty-rufous collar. Their back is rich rufescent brown and their rump and uppertail coverts chestnut-rufous. Their tail is rufous-chestnut. Their wing coverts are brown, their primary coverts dark slaty brown, and their flight feathers slaty gray-brown. Their throat is variable but generally orangey to rusty, their breast is similar but a deeper rufescent in its center, their belly is paler than the breast, and their undertail coverts are darker rufescent brown or chestnut-brown. Their iris is brown, their maxilla gray to blackish, their mandible gray to horn, and their legs and feet gray-green to greenish yellow. Juveniles are much like adults but have more rufous upperparts and ochraceous underparts. Subspecies P. f. erythronotum is paler and duller overall than the nominate, though the Ecuadoran population has somewhat more ochraceous underparts.
Taxonomy
The slaty-winged foliage-gleaner has a complicated taxonomic history. Since about 1990 it has been assigned two subspecies, the nominate P. f. fuscipenne (Salvin, 1866) and P. f. erythronotum (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1873). For a time P. f. erythronotum was treated as a separate species. Later, P. f. fuscipenne was treated as subspecies of the rufous-rumped foliage-gleaner (P. erythrocercum). The spellings of what are now fuscipenne and erythronutum have also changed from ending in the masculine "us" with the recognition that Pyilydor is neuter.<p>P. f. erythronotum has two widely separated populations (see the Distribution section); that in Ecuador "probably represents an undescribed taxon".
- Scientific name
- Neophilydor fuscipenne
- Authority
- Salvin, 1866
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Neophilydor
Range and habitat
The nominate subspecies of the slaty-winged foliage-gleaner is found in central Panama from Veraguas Province to the Canal Zone. Subspecies P. f. erythronotum has a disjunct distribution. One population is found from Panama's Panamá Province east into Colombia where it ranges east to Santander Department and south into Chocó Department. The other population is found in western Ecuador from Pichincha Province south to El Oro Province.<p>The slaty-winged foliage-gleaner inhabits humid lowland evergreen forest and also secondary forest. In elevation it mainly occurs between 500 and 1,000 m (1,600 and 3,300 ft). It reaches 1,600 m (5,200 ft) in Colombia but only 600 m (2,000 ft) in Ecuador.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The slaty-winged foliage-gleaner is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The slaty-winged foliage-gleaner feeds on arthropods. Orthoptera, Coleoptera, and spiders are major components of its diet, though other insects and even small lizards are also eaten. It forages singly and in pairs, usually as members of a mixed-species feeding flock. It feeds primarily from the forest's undergrowth to its mid-storey. It acrobatically climbs along and up branches, gleaning its prey from dead leaves and epiphytes.<p>Nothing is known about the slaty-winged foliage-gleaner's breeding biology.<p>The slaty-winged foliage-gleaner's song is "a monotonic accelerating trill". Its contact call is "a sharp 'chef' ".
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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