• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by megan perkins
Milpe Bird Sanctuary, Ecuador, 28 November 2012
Anabacerthia variegaticeps

Identification

15–16 cm (6-6¼ in). Fairly typical brown foliage-gleaner with characteristic black and orangy face pattern.

  • crown, most of face and malar streak dark, blackish
  • eye ring and distal supercilium "spectacles" long (to neck) strongly orangey
  • auricular area may include vague pale patch
  • throat area paler, yellowish, more or less lightly streaked. May extend rearwards as a half collar.
  • chest with coarse pale streaking (subspecies dependent)
  • mantle and wings mid-brown
  • primary coverts and distal part of primaries darker
  • underparts often paler, light brown but may be quite dark orange (subspecies dependent)
  • tail rufous
  • bill wedge-shaped, greyish to cream
  • eye dark
  • legs dull greyish to yellowish

Distribution

Three well separated populations:
Central America: Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and northern Nicaragua; secondly from Costa Rica to western Panama
South America: west of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador

Taxonomy

More than one species may be involved.

Subspecies

Clements recognises the following subspecies [1]:

  • A. v. variegaticeps: South Mexico (Guerrero and Veracruz) to western Panama. [often pale beneath with chest streaking muted or absent. Greater tendency to have a "collar"]
  • A. v. temporalis: West slope of Western Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. [dark underneath, more strongly orange with strong chest streaking]

Other authors recognise subspecies schaldachi of south-west Mexico (e.g. refs [2], [3])

Habitat

Montane and lowland evergreen forests. Also tall second growth forests.

Behaviour

Diet

They eat a variety of insects, including moths and spiders.

Breeding

They are thought to be monogamous. Their clutch contains 2 eggs, which are laid at the bottom of an old woodpecker nest hole.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Angehr and Dean 2010: The Birds of Panama, a field guide
  3. Fagan and Komar, Peterson field guide to birds of northern Central America
  4. Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
  5. HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1

Back
Top