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Cinereous-breasted Spinetail | Synallaxis hypospodia
Grijsborststekelstaart | Pijuí cenizo | João-grilo
Cinereous-breasted Spinetail is a spinetail of wet grassland and savanna in the lowlands of Bolivia and the far south-east of Peru. It lives in grassland with scattered shrubs, often close to water. Most of its range lies in Brazil.
Voice
A hurried, loud chatter on one pitch that speeds up at the end; also described as a high, sharp toot-drrrrrruh.
Recording: Jacob Wijpkema — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
15–16 cm, with a long, graduated tail. The crown and nape are chestnut-rufous, with a faint grey eyebrow. The back is dark brown, the wing coverts chestnut-rufous and the tail brown. The throat is whitish, the breast greyish brown and the belly whitish. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Pale-breasted Spinetail Synallaxis albescens lives in similar open country, but is paler, with an olive-brown back, a pale buffy grey breast and a black-flecked throat. Sooty-fronted Spinetail Synallaxis frontalis has a dark greyish-brown forehead and a rufous tail, and lives in drier woodland and scrub. Yellow-chinned Spinetail Certhiaxis cinnamomeus is rufous above and white below, with a small yellow chin spot, and lives in marsh vegetation.
Habitat
Seasonally wet grassland, scrub and savanna, usually near water, from sea level to about 700 m. It forages low in the vegetation and on the ground for insects. The nest is a ball of twigs with an entrance tube, low in a shrub.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. In Peru only in far eastern Madre de Dios (Pampas del Heath); a few scattered reports from central Peru are uncertain. In Bolivia in the north and east, in the savannas of Beni and Santa Cruz. Outside the guide area widespread in Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search the wet savannas of Beni and north-eastern Santa Cruz in grassland with shrubs; the bird sings from a low bush, mainly in the morning.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Conversion of savanna to farmland and burning degrade its habitat locally.
Scientific name
Synallaxis hypospodia | Sclater, 1874
Sclater described the species in 1874 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Synallaxis was introduced in 1818 by Vieillot. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek sunallaxis, 'exchange'. The species name comes from Greek hupo, 'below', and spodios, 'ash-grey', for the grey underparts. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bahia, Brazil.