Ayacucho Thistletail - BirdForum Opus

Asthenes ayacuchensis

Identification

18-20 cm
Shape of a typical Thistletail with a very long tail. Body had olive-brown upperside and grey underside, the head has a dark eye-line but no supercilium and the chin area is relatively large and bright reddish-chestnut.

Similar species

Vilcabamba Thistletail is very similar and most easily distinguished by sound (ranges should be separated by Rio Apurimac).

Distribution

Andes of south Peru (Ayacucho).

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species.
Formerly considered conspecific with Vilcabamba Thistletail.

Habitat

Elfin woods, second growth and polylepis at 3300-3700 m asl.

Behaviour

Feeds in understory but details are lacking. Usually a solitary species.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2016. IOC World Bird Names (version 6.3). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
3. Birdforum thread discussing the taxonomy of Schizoeaca
4. del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Ayacucho Thistletail (Asthenes ayacuchensis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D.A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.vilthi3.01

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Ayacucho Thistletail. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 14 September 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Ayacucho_Thistletail

External Links

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