Tapaculos | Rhinocryptidae

Tapaculo's | Tapaculos | Tapaculos

This South American family is richly represented in the region, with 41 species in five genera. By far the most belong to Scytalopus and live in the Andes, where each species often occupies its own altitudinal band or slope, from cloud forest and bamboo up to the treeline and the páramo. In addition, the large Ocellated Tapaculo (Acropternis) and the Ash-colored Tapaculo (Myornis) occur in montane forest, Liosceles lives in the Amazonian lowlands at the foot of the Andes, and the Crested Gallito (Rhinocrypta) in the dry scrub of the Chaco region. Tapaculos are small, rounded, dark grey or brown birds with a short tail that is often cocked, short rounded wings and strong legs with large feet. A distinctive feature of the family is a movable flap over the nostrils. They fly little and poorly and creep like mice through dense undergrowth, ferns, moss and fallen trunks, searching for insects and other small invertebrates. Because they seldom show themselves and the species look very much alike, the voice is the main means of identification: loud, endlessly repeated notes or rattling series ringing out from the thickets. Several species have been separated only in recent decades on the basis of their songs. The nest is a ball or cup of moss and rootlets in a cavity, a hole in a bank or among roots, usually with two white eggs.