Silvery-fronted Tapaculo
Scytalopus argentifrons
Tapaculos are small, plump, short-tailed, mostly gray birds that are as sneaky as mice. Silvery-fronted is the only tapaculo in its range, and the male has a distinctive whitish eyebrow. Also look for browner flanks with dark bars. Females don’t have the white eyebrow but are still distinctive in range because of the overall dark color and extremely furtive habits. Rarely seen well; stays on or near the ground in the forest understory. Listen for the song: a series of chips starting off fast, gradually getting slower and louder.
Identification
The silvery-fronted tapaculo is 11 cm (4.3 in) long and weighs 17 g (0.60 oz). The male of the nominate subspecies is mostly sooty black; the lower breast and belly are paler. The flanks and crissum (the area around the cloaca) are brownish red. It has a silvery forehead (the "front") and a white supercilium. The male Chiriqui is darker with a less prominent supercilium. The females of both subspecies do not have a supercilium; their upper parts are dark brown, the throat and breast are dark gray, the belly blackish, and the flanks and crissum brighter brownish red than the male's. The juvenile is similar to the female but darker with brown "scales" on the underparts.
Taxonomy
The silvery-fronted tapaculo has two subspecies, the nominate "silvery-fronted" Scytalopus argentifrons argentifrons and the "Chiriqui" S. a. chiriquensis. The Chiriqui subspecies has at times been considered a separate species.
- Scientific name
- Scytalopus argentifrons
- Authority
- Ridgway, 1891
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Rhinocryptidae
- Genus
- Scytalopus
Range and habitat
The silvery-fronted tapaculo is the only member of its family whose entire range is in Central America. (The Tacarcuna tapaculo, S. panamensis, is found in far southern Panama and Colombia.) It inhabits the Talamancan montane forests at elevations of 1,000 to 3,000 m (3,300 to 9,800 ft). The Chiriqui subspecies is found only in western Panama. The nominate S. a. argentifrons has the wider range, from western Panama north through Costa Rica almost to the border with Nicaragua. If frequents thickets and bamboo in the undergrowth of humid primary forest and secondary forest, especially in ravines and along streams.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The silvery-fronted tapaculo forages for insects and other arthropods while creeping and hopping along the ground.<p>The silvery-fronted tapaculo's breeding phenology has not been described.<p>The silvery-fronted tapaculo's song is a series of notes that slow but get louder during its five to 10 second duration [1]. Its call is similar but shorter [2].
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Medium-sized blackbird found locally in habitats with wet grass. Shiny black, with a white or light yellow eye and sharply pointed black bill. Giant Cowbird occasionally has a pale eye and may appear similar, but is much larger than Pale-eyed Blackbird; told apart from the similar Velvet-fronted Grackle by its pale eyes, longer, more pointed bill, and shorter tail. Found in wet grasslands and grassy margins of oxbow lakes, where it forages singly, in pairs, or in small groups.
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