Peruvian Recurvebill
Syndactyla ucayalae
Reddish-brown bird with a distinctive upturned bill. Found almost exclusively in bamboo thickets, but occasionally also in dense viny areas. Forages singly or in pairs in the under- and midstory, using its bill to pry open holes in dead bamboo to find insects. Its song is a deep accelerating rattle “tick-ti-tr-trrrrrrrrrrrrr” that crescendos.
Identification
The Peruvian recurvebill is 19 to 20 cm (7.5 to 7.9 in) long and weighs 39 to 55 g (1.4 to 1.9 oz). It is a largish furnariid with a heavy, wedge-shaped, slightly upturned, bill. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a faint narrow rufous supercilium, grizzled grayish, brownish, and dark buff lores and ear coverts, and a reddish rufous malar area. Their crown is dark reddish brown with faint streaks on the forehead. Their uppperparts are reddish brown with a slightly more reddish collar. Their wings are dark reddish brown with dark ochraceous at the bend. Their tail is dark reddish chestnut. Their throat is orange-rufous with faint paler streaks at its lower edge, their breast orange-rufous with faint paler streaks, their belly slightly duller than the breast and minimally streaked, and their flanks and undertail coverts darker orange-rufous than the breast. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their maxilla grayish horn to grayish brown, their mandible gray to silvery-bluish, and their legs and feet olive to olive-green. Juveniles have a brighter supercilium than adults, with whitish lores. Their crown is darker, with dark rufescent spots. Their back is darker and less rufescent and their underparts paler but with a strong black scalloped pattern.
Taxonomy
The Peruvian recurvebill and its sister species the Bolivian recurvebill (S. striata) were previously placed in genus Simoxenops. Their vocalizations and behavior strongly suggested the two species belonged in Syndactyla, and that placement was confirmed by genetic study.<p>The Peruvian recurvebill is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Syndactyla ucayalae
- Authority
- (Chapman, 1928)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Syndactyla
Range and habitat
The Peruvian recurvebill is found in the western Amazon Basin of southeastern Peru, northern Bolivia, and far western Brazil, and also locally in isolated areas further east in Amazonian Brazil. It is a bamboo specialist, inhabiting tropical lowland evergreen forest and riverside forest in and near thickets of Guadua bamboo. It also locally occurs in riverside thickets of Gynerium cane. In elevation it reaches 1,300 m (4,300 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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