Chestnut-winged Foliage-gleaner
Dendroma erythroptera
Gray-brown foliage-gleaner with reddish wings and tail. Face and throat washed with dull yellow, with a faint eyeline; this is unlike many other foliage-gleaners which have a clear eyebrow or throat patch. Usually forages fairly high in the midstory and canopy of mature rainforest, often with mixed species flocks. Many foliage-gleaners have reddish wings; look for reddish wings contrasting with grayish body and tawny ochraceous face and throat in this species.
Identification
The chestnut-winged foliage-gleaner is 17 to 19 cm (6.7 to 7.5 in) long and weighs 28 to 36 g (0.99 to 1.3 oz). It is a largish furnariid. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a wide tawny eyering, an indistinct tawny supercilium that narrows past the eye, a dark gray area behind the eye, brownish lores, dull brownish ear coverts, and ochraceous yellow malars. Their crown is dull brownish gray with buff streaks. Their back and rump are dull grayish brown and their uppertail coverts are slightly paler. Their wing coverts are rufous with black streaks, their primary coverts dark chestnut, and their flight feathers darkish rufous with dark fuscous tips. Their tail is dark rufous. Their throat is ochraceous yellow and their breast light brownish with indistinct ochraceous tawny streaks that fade to their slightly paler belly. Their flanks and undertail coverts are light grayish brown. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their maxilla dark brown to brownish, their mandible greenish horn to yellowish green, and their legs and feet yellowish green to light greenish olive. Juveniles are slightly paler and duller overall than adults, with a darker throat and few or no streaks on their underparts. Subspecies D. e. diluvialis has browner (less grayish) upperparts than the nominate, a much more buffy breast, and browner flanks and undertail coverts.
Taxonomy
The chestnut-winged foliage-gleaner's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and the Clements taxonomy follow the conclusions of a 2011 publication that moved the species from genus Philydor to Dendroma. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) retains it in Philydor.<p>According to the IOC and Clements, the chestnut-winged foliage-gleaner shares genus Dendroma with the buff-fronted foliage-gleaner (D. rufa), and they and the chestnut-winged hookbill (Ancistrops strigilatus) are sister species. HBW retains the buff-fronted foliage-gleaner in genus Philydor with the chestnut-winged and several other foliage-gleaner species, and does not agree with the above sister species treatment.<p>The three taxonomic systems agree with assigning two subspecies to the buff-fronted foliage-gleaner, here listed using genus Dendroma. (HBW retains the neuter spellings of the specific epithets instead of the feminine ones required by Dendroma.) They are the nominate subspecies D. e. erythroptera (Sclater, PL, 1856) and D. e. diluvialis (Griscom & Greenway Jr., 1937).
- Scientific name
- Dendroma erythroptera
- Authority
- (Sclater, PL, 1856)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Dendrocolaptidae
- Genus
- Dendroma
Range and habitat
The nominate subspecies of the chestnut-winged foliage-gleaner is found from southeastern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador and eastern Peru into northeastern Bolivia and east in Brazil south of the Amazon to the Rio Madeira. It also has a separate smaller range in southern Venezuela's Amazonas and Bolívar states. D. e. diluvialis is found further east, in the Brazilian states of Pará and Maranhão. The species inhabits tropical lowland evergreen forest and flooded forest. It favors terra firme forest but also occurs more locally in várzea forest. In elevation it mostly ranges only to 500 m (1,600 ft) but locally is found as high as 1,200 m (3,900 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The chestnut-winged foliage-gleaner is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The chestnut-winged foliage-gleaner feeds on arthropods. It typically forages in pairs, and usually in mixed-species feeding flocks. It mostly forages from the forest's mid-storey to its canopy though it will do so lower. It typically forages near the ends of branches, acrobatically gleaning prey from live and dead leaves and sometimes twigs.<p>Nothing is known about the chestnut-winged foliage-gleaner's breeding biology.<p>The chestnut-winged foliage-gleaner's song is a two- or three-second "fast, buzzy, slightly accelerating, quavering or slightly descending trill".
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Russet-backed Oropendola
Psarocolius angustifrons
A medium-sized oropendola; fairly common in lowlands but seems to be scarce in montane forest. Can occur up to around 2,500m in the Andes, where it is usually the only oropendola and unlikely to be confused. Generally olive overall with warmer rufous tones on back and rump. Variable bill color: dark blackish in the Amazonian lowlands; usually yellowish in Andes. Yellow outer tail feathers like other oropendolas. Typically in flocks that forage in the canopy, sometimes in mixed flocks with other oropendolas or caciques.
Rufous Wren
Cinnycerthia unirufa
A medium-sized, uniformly-colored wren found in the upper subtropical and temperate zone of the Andes from western Venezuela to extreme northern Peru. Bright rufous-brown overall (brightest in the northern populations) with black lores and indistinct dark barring on wings and tail. Similar to Sharpe’s Wren, but brighter brown and typically found at higher elevations. Occurs from around 2,200-3,800m. Small parties forage in the understory of forest, often around bamboo thickets. Can be skulky and difficult to see well. Sometimes follows mixed-species flocks. Listen for the harsh chattering calls.
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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