Sharp-billed Canastero
Asthenes pyrrholeuca
Fairly common but easily overlooked in the Andes and southern lowlands, mainly in drier habitats with low scrubby bushes. Usually rather skulking; keeps low in bushes and creeps in vegetation, but often sings from atop a bush. Plumage rather plain brownish overall, suggesting a House Wren, but note very long, loosely held tail with rusty sides. Compare with Cordilleran Canastero of more open habitats and also note distinctive voices.
Identification
The sharp-billed canastero is 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long and weighs 12 to 14 g (0.42 to 0.49 oz). It is one of the smaller canasteros, with a pointed bill that is thinner than those of most others. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a gray-brown face with a paler supercilium. Their crown is dull brown, their back and rump a slightly paler brown, and their uppertail coverts long and browner. Their wings are mostly dull rufescent brown. Their central pair of tail feathers are pointed; they and the next two pairs are dark fuscous brown with dusky tips and the rest mostly dull rufous with dark inner webs. Their chin and upper throat are rufous to tawny with dark-tipped pale streaks. Their lower throat and breast are pale grayish brown with faint streaks on the latter, their belly pale buff-brown, and their flanks and undertail coverts darker buff-brown with a rufescent tinge. Their iris is brown, their maxilla slate-gray to black, their mandible gray-horn, and their legs and feet slate-gray. Juveniles do not have the throat patch and their breast is mottled. Subspecies A. p. sordida differs from the nominate only by having entirely rufous outer tail feathers.
Taxonomy
The sharp-billed canastero's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) assign it two subspecies, the nominate A. p. pyrrholeuca (Vieillot, 1817) and A. p. sordida (Lesson, 1839). The Clements taxonomy adds two more, A. p. affinis (Berlepsch, 1906) and A. p. flavogularis (Gould, 1839). The IOC and HBW consider affinis to be a seasonal morph of sordida and flavogularis to be a seasonal morph of the nominate pyrrholeuca.<p>This article follows the two-subspecies model.
- Scientific name
- Asthenes pyrrholeuca
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1817)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Asthenes
Range and habitat
The nominate subspecies of the sharp-billed canastero breeds in central and southern Argentina and winters to northern Argentina and southern Paraguay and Uruguay. Subspecies A. p. sordida breeds in central and southern Chile and west-central Argentina and winters to northern Argentina and southern Bolivia. The species inhabits a variety of semi-arid to arid landscapes including shrub-steppe, lowland and montane scrublands, and temperate, hilly, and rocky grasslands. In the non-breeding season it also occurs in tall grass, marshy areas, and Gran Chaco scrub. In elevation it mostly ranges from sea level to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) but locally occurs as high as 3,000 m (9,800 ft).
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
Migration pattern: Complete migrants.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Kloss's Leaf Warbler
Phylloscopus ogilviegranti
Unlike “Blyth’s-type” leaf warblers, the similarly-sized but somewhat stouter Kloss’s and Davison’s leaf warblers flick both of their wings at the same time. A brightly-marked leaf warbler with a yolk-yellow brow and crown stripe, and a pale-yellow vent which contrasts with the white breast and belly. Wing bars are also yellow and average stronger than those of Claudia’s, Blyth’s, and Hartert’s warblers. Yellow vent and strong crown stripe may cause confusion with Eastern Crowned Warbler when the latter is migrating, but look for the relatively small, stubby bill and the strong double wing bars of Kloss’s.
Blue-gray Tanager
Thraupis episcopus
Common and widespread powder blue-gray bird of open and semi-open areas with larger trees and hedges, towns, villages, and gardens in tropical and subtropical regions. Mainly feeds at mid-upper levels in trees, eating fruit, and perches readily on phone wires. Rather plain but distinctive appearance, with beady dark eye and fairly stout bill. Populations east of the Andes in South America have broad white wing-bars and look very different.
African Crested Flycatcher
Trochocercus cyanomelas
Small, slim, crested member of the monarch family. The male has a black hood, a large crest, and a variable white patch in the wing. The female is plainer and greyer, with a reduced crest and less white in the wing. Found in the midstory of forest, from low to high elevations. Restless bird that often joins mixed feeding flocks. Call is a zinging “zree-zre-zre”. Song is a long, musical series of hollow notes. The very pale underparts and white mark on the wing are separate it from other crested-flycatchers.
Start Your Bird Watching Journey
Identify a bird outdoors and keep the field guide close for your next observation.