Plain Thornbird
Phacellodomus inornatus
A rather plain thornbird with a long tail and a dark gray eye. Nondescript; look for the cinnamon-tinged forehead and slightly warmer brown flanks and tail. Found in open areas with scattered trees and savannas; avoids the forest interior. Tends to be very vocal, often singing a squeaky, chattering duet. Look for its enormous stick nests usually located in isolated trees where they hang suspended at the end of branches. Occurs in northern Venezuela and Colombia.
Identification
The plain thornbird is 16 to 17 cm (6.3 to 6.7 in) long and weighs about 20 to 31 g (0.71 to 1.1 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a dull brown stripe behind the eye on an otherwise pale buff-brown face. Their crown and upperparts are dull brown. Their wings are mostly dull brown with darker brown primary coverts and some rufescence. Their tail is dull brown. Their throat is pale and the rest of their underparts are mostly dirty buff-white. Their iris is brown to grayish white, their bill dark with a yellowish base to the mandible, and their legs and feet gray. Juveniles have mottled upperparts. Subspecies P. i. castilloi has a somewhat grayish face, somewhat olivaceous (less rufescent) upperparts, and more brownish tail and undertail coverts.
Taxonomy
The plain thornbird was formally described in 1887 by the American ornithologist Robert Ridgway based on a specimen collected in Caracas, Venezuela. He coined the binomial name Phacellodomus inornatus. Its specific epithet is Latin meaning "plain" or "unadorned".<p>The plain thornbird's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC), BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW), and the Clements taxonomy follow a 2020 study that compared mitochondrial DNA sequences and treat it as a species with two subspecies, the nominate P. i. inornatus (Ridgway, 1887) and P. i. castilloi (Phelps Jr & Aveledo, 1987). The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society treats the two taxa as subspecies of the rufous-fronted thornbird (P. rufifrons).
- Scientific name
- Phacellodomus inornatus
- Authority
- Ridgway, 1887
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Phacellodomus
Range and habitat
The nominate subspecies of the plain thornbird is found in north-central Venezuela between the states of Falcón and Miranda. Subspecies P. i. castilloi is found in central and western Venezuela from Sucre and Monagas west into northeastern Colombia as far as Meta Department. The species inhabits a variety of landscapes whose common features are dense thickets and at least some trees. They include arid lowland scrublands; tropical deciduous, gallery, and secondary forest; and llanos and savannah grasslands. In elevation it mostly ranges from sea level to 950 m (3,100 ft) but reaches 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Colombia.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The plain thornbird is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The plain thornbird feeds on arthropods. It usually forages in pairs or small groups that include nest helpers but only rarely joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It mostly forages on the ground but will do so as high as the forest's mid-level. It mostly gleans its prey from leaf litter but will search dead foliage in bushes.<p>The plain thornbird's breeding season has not been fully defined but in general can span from April to November. At least in Venezuela, two broods in a year are common. It is thought to be monogamous and maintains the pair bond year-round. Young from previous broods sometimes remain, and help with nest building, maintenance, and defence. The species makes an extremely large nest for its own size. It constructs a cylinder of sticks (including thorny ones) that can be 2.5 m (8 ft) long and has several chambers and entrances. Often more than one nest is built in a territory, and old nests can be renovated and reused. The clutch size is three eggs. The incubation period is 16 to 17 days and fledging occurs 21 to 22 days after hatch. Both parents incubate the clutch; they and helpers if present provision nestlings.<p>The plain thornbird's song is "a bright, chippery and energetic series of loud 'chit' or 'chee' notes, often given in duet, which accelerates slightly, before gradually slowing and dropping in pitch" and is frequently repeated. Its calls include "a sharp 'chip' or 'chek, or a metallic 'tsi' ".
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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