All species › Passerines › Tanagers and allies › Black-capped Hemispingus
Black-capped Hemispingus | Kleinothraupis atropileus
Zwartkruinhemispingus | Hemispingo coroninegro | Sanhaço-de-coroa-preta
The Black-capped Hemispingus is a fairly large, dark-headed tanager of high montane forest in the Andes, from Colombia to southern Peru. A black head with a long, pale supercilium above olive-yellow underparts makes it distinctive within its elevational zone. Pairs and small groups often keep to bamboo in the understory.
Voice
The song is a fast, rattling twitter of high notes, often given as a duet by a pair. The call is a sharp tchit.
Recording: Guilherme Melo — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
17 cm, with a fairly short, dark bill. Crown and sides of the head black, with a long, narrow, whitish supercilium that is often buff in front of the eye. Upperparts, wings and tail olive-green. Throat and breast ochraceous yellow, belly olive-yellow. Birds from central and southern Peru have a broader, whiter supercilium and a warmer, orange-yellow throat. Sexes alike. Young birds are duller, with a brownish-black head.
Confusion species
Black-eared Hemispingus Sphenopsis melanotis is smaller, with a grey crown, a black ear patch and a cinnamon throat and breast. Superciliaried Hemispingus Thlypopsis superciliaris is smaller, with an olive-grey crown and yellow underparts. Black-headed Hemispingus Pseudospingus verticalis has a black head with a grey crown stripe and grey underparts. In southern Peru, Orange-browed Hemispingus Kleinothraupis calophrys and Parodi's Hemispingus Kleinothraupis parodii have a yellow to orange supercilium.
Habitat
Humid montane forest and cloud forest up to the treeline, especially where the understory consists of Chusquea bamboo, also forest edges, roughly between 2300 and 3500 m. It forages in pairs or small groups in the understory and middle levels for insects, often in mixed flocks. Little is known about the nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Andes. In Ecuador on both slopes of the Andes. In Peru mainly on the eastern slope, from the north to Cusco. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search cloud forest with a dense bamboo understory near the treeline, for example along the high roads in the Andes of Ecuador; follow the rattling duet of a pair in the understory.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated in this species concept; the Red List assesses the northern and southern forms separately, and both are listed there as Least Concern. Clearing of montane forest locally reduces its habitat.
Scientific name
Kleinothraupis atropileus | (de Lafresnaye, 1842)
De Lafresnaye described the species in 1842 as Arremon atro-pileus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Kleinothraupis was introduced in 2016 by Burns, Unitt & Mason. The genus name honours the ornithologist Nedra K. Klein, combined with Greek thraupis, an unidentified small bird mentioned by Aristotle. The species name comes from Latin ater, 'black', and pileus, 'cap', after the black crown. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bogotá, Colombia.