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Choco Tapaculo | Scytalopus chocoensis
Chocótapaculo | Tapaculo del Chocó | Macuquinho-do-chocó
The Choco Tapaculo is a small, dark grey tapaculo of the understory of wet foothill forest in the Chocó, from eastern Panama to north-western Ecuador. It is the lowest-living Scytalopus of the western slope of the northern Andes. It was described as a species only in 1997.
Voice
The song is a series of rapidly repeated, short notes from dense undergrowth, differing from that of Narino Tapaculo. Also short calls.
Recording: Rolf A. de By — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11 cm, round, with a short tail, short wings and fairly long legs. The male is uniformly dark grey, with a brown rump and rufous-brown rear flanks barred dark. The female is browner, especially above and on the flanks. Juveniles are brown with dark bars.
Confusion species
Narino Tapaculo Scytalopus vicinior lives higher on the same slope and sings differently. Tatama Tapaculo Scytalopus alvarezlopezi also lives higher, is more blackish and has a different song. Tacarcuna Tapaculo Scytalopus panamensis lives on higher peaks in the Serranía del Darién and has a pale eyebrow. Blackish Tapaculo Scytalopus latrans lives much higher and is blackish.
Habitat
Understory of wet foothill forest and the lowest montane forest, especially in dense vegetation in ravines, along streams and around fallen trees, roughly between 300 and 1500 m. It forages on or just above the ground for small arthropods. Little is known about its breeding.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia on the Pacific slope of the Western Andes, from Chocó and Antioquia south to Nariño. In Ecuador in the north-west, in Esmeraldas, Carchi, Imbabura and Pichincha. Absent from Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in eastern Panama (Darién).
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen in the wet foothill forest of north-western Ecuador and along mountain roads on the Pacific side of Colombia, at the lowest elevations, for the rapid series of notes. Wait quietly near a gap in the undergrowth.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Foothill forest in the Chocó is cleared locally, but much of the range is still forested.
Scientific name
Scytalopus chocoensis | Krabbe & Schulenberg, 1997
Krabbe & Schulenberg described the species in 1997 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Scytalopus was introduced in 1837 by Gould. The genus name combines Greek skutalē or skutalon, 'stick', with pous, 'foot'. The species name chocoensis refers to the Chocó, the humid lowlands and western slopes of western Colombia and north-western Ecuador; this is not necessarily the type locality. The specimen the first description was based on came from El Placer, Esmeraldas, Ecuador.