Band-tailed Earthcreeper
Ochetorhynchus phoenicurus
Distinctive little bird of shrub-steppe in Patagonia, sometimes seen in rather open and overgrazed areas with only a few bushes, in which its bulky stick nest is built. Found singly or pairs, usually running well on the ground with tail cocked up or perched on a bush. As well as shape and behavior, note the narrow whitish eyebrow, streaky breast, and black tail with a dark rusty band at the base.
Identification
The band-tailed earthcreeper is 16 to 17 cm (6.3 to 6.7 in) long and weighs 28 to 34 g (0.99 to 1.2 oz). It is a smallish earthcreeper whose medium-length bill is thin and straight. The sexes are alike. Adults have a white supercilium, a dark stripe behind the eye, and rufescent cheeks. Their crown and upperparts are plain dull gray-brown. Their tail's central pair of feathers are fuscous blackish with dull gray-brown bases and the rest have a sharp line between dark rufous bases and black ends. Their wings are dull gray-brown. Their throat is whitish with grayer edges, their breast and belly pale dull gray-brown with paler streaks on the breast and flanks, and their undertail coverts whitish. Their iris is dark brown, their bill black or blackish brown with a pale gray or horn base to the mandible, and their legs and feet blackish brown or blackish. Juveniles have pale feather edges on their forehead and much fainter streaking on their underparts than adults.
Taxonomy
The band-tailed earthcreeper was originally described as Eremobius phoenicurus. In the early 1900s at least one publication put it in genus Enicornis. Since the early 2000s has been in its present genus.<p>The band-tailed earthcreeper is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Ochetorhynchus phoenicurus
- Authority
- (Gould, 1839)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Ochetorhynchus
Range and habitat
The band-tailed earthcreeper is found in southwestern Argentina between Neuquén and Santa Cruz provinces and in the northeastern part of far southern Chile's Magallanes Region. It inhabits arid scrublands and temperate grasslands. It favors thinly vegetated plains, plateaus, and slopes. In elevation it ranges from near sea level to 1,200 m (3,900 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The band-tailed earthcreeper is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The band-tailed earthcreeper forages on the ground for its arthropod diet, usually singly. It probes and gleans on bare ground, in rock crevices, and in grass clumps and cushion plants.<p>The band-tailed earthcreeper is thought to be monomgamous. It breeds in the austral summer, at least between September and January. It constructs a ball nest of thorny twigs with a side entrance to a tunnel leading to the nest chamber, typically placed about 1 to 2 m (3 to 7 ft) above the ground in a low bush or cactus. It lines the floor of the chamber with soft material such as hair, flowers, and feathers. The clutch size is two to four eggs. The incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.<p>The band-tailed earthcreeper's song is "a fast dry trill that sometimes ends with separate sharp 'ti' notes". Its alarm call is "a repeated, husky 'suwee' or 'wheet' ".
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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