White-browed Spinetail
Hellmayrea gularis
Small rufous-brown bird found in the undergrowth of temperate forest from 2,500–3,700 m. Overall quite plain with distinctive white throat and eyebrow. Also note spiky rufous tail. Sexes alike. Uncommon and easily overlooked as singles or pairs forage close to the ground among mossy thickets and tangles, sometimes following mixed-species flocks. Listen for piercing high-pitched calls and trilled song.
Identification
The white-browed spinetail is 11 to 13.5 cm (4.3 to 5.3 in) long and weighs 11 to 15 g (0.39 to 0.53 oz). It has a short tail compared to other spinetails. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies H. g. gularis have whitish supercilia that almost meet on the forehead on an otherwise dark rufescent brown face. Their forehead, crown, and nape are rufescent brown with faint paler streaks. Their upperparts and wings are also rufescent brown. Their tail is rufescent brown; the ends of the feathers are pointed and lack barbs. Their throat is white with a thin black band below it, and their underparts are unmarked cinnamon-brown to buffy brown, sometimes with a gray tinge. Their iris is dark brown to brown, their maxilla black to dark gray, their mandible pinkish horn to gray with a dark tip, and their legs and feet olive, olive-brown, or olive-yellowish. Juveniles have dark tips on the feathers of their breast and belly.<p>Subspecies H. g. brunneidorsalis has browner, less rufescent, upperparts than the nominate, with paler and grayer underparts with brown only on the flanks. H. g. cinereiventris has darker and richer brown upperparts than the nominate, with brownish gray underparts. H. g. rufiventris is darker overall than the nominate, with more rufescent upperparts and dark chestnut underparts.
Taxonomy
Several twentieth century authors placed the white-browed spinetail in genus Synallaxis. Data published in the early twenty-first century confirm its placement in Hellmayrea, and showed that it is not closely related to Synallaxis but instead to genus Asthenes.<p>The white-browed spinetail is the only member of its genus and has these four subspecies:
- Scientific name
- Hellmayrea gularis
- Authority
- (Lafresnaye, 1843)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Hellmayrea
Range and habitat
The subspecies of the white-browed spinetail are found thus:<p>The white-browed spinetail is most common in elfin forest; it also inhabits montane evergreen forest and the undergrowth and edges of cloudforest, where it often occurs in thickets of Chusquea bamboo. In elevation it ranges from 2,300 to 3,900 m (7,500 to 12,800 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The white-browed spinetail is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The white-browed spinetail feeds on arthropods. It typically forages singly or in pairs, and occasionally joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It hunts acrobatically, hitching and hopping up trunks and sometimes hangs upside down to reach prey, usually in the forest's dense understorey and sometimes on the ground. It gleans and probes for its prey in moss, dense foliage, dead leaves, bark, and bamboo.<p>Nothing is known about the white-browed spinetail's breeding biology.<p>The white-browed spinetail's song is "a series of high-pitched notes ending in trill, 'chit-chit-chit-chit-chi-chi-chichichichichichi' or 'cheet teet-teet-ti-tititit' ". Its calls include an "abrupt 'chip' " and a "nasal descending trill" and also "repeated single 'chiyt' or 'tseet' notes".
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Spilornis rufipectus
A large, broad-winged dark raptor. Adults show a short crest, a blackish head with yellow facial skin, a chocolate-brown back, and rust-colored underparts with extensive white speckling. In flight appears blackish with a conspicuous single broad white bar on the rear of the wings and tail. Immatures pale, with dark mask, boldly streaked underparts, and dark chocolate upperside. In flight, note extensive dark markings on underwings. Inhabits forests, edges, rice paddies, and sparsely wooded areas from lowlands to mountains. Confined to Sulawesi and the Banggai and Sula Islands. Speckled rusty underside identifies perched adults, dark mask perched immatures. In flight, distinguished from all other local raptors by white bar on rear wing and tail of adults, and by bold streaking below in immatures. Gives strident “kew” calls, sometimes with inflection: “kew-di-lew.”
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Plump, medium-sized bird with long legs, short bill, and very short tail: the typical antpitta shape. Mostly rufous overall with gray nape and lores. Sexes similar. Solitary and very shy and difficult to see, little known about its habits. Mostly near streams, on or close to ground in forest edges, tree falls, elfin forest, and mossy cloud forest. Easy to find by voice, a series of low whistled notes “wü, wü-wü-wü…wüwü.” Endemic to the Andes of Venezuela.
Speckled Hummingbird
Adelomyia melanogenys
Small brownish hummingbird with distinctive black cheek and pale buffy eyebrow. Throat variably speckled; some populations are cleaner than others. Green back; dark tail with buffy corners. Face pattern could recall a hermit, but combination of small size, straight dark bill, and squared tail should alleviate any confusion. Widespread and fairly common in the Andes, where it forages low within forest or at the forest edge. Found from 1,000–3,000m. Visits feeders.
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