All species › Passerines › Ovenbirds and woodcreepers › Grey-crested Cacholote
Grey-crested Cacholote | Pseudoseisura unirufa
Grijskuifcacholote | Cacholote pardo | Casaca-de-couro-da-lama
The Grey-crested Cacholote is a large, rufous-brown ovenbird with a greyish crest, of the savannas and gallery forests of interior South America. In the guide area it lives in the lowlands of eastern Bolivia. Pairs call loudly in duet and build large stick nests, often close to farms.
Voice
Pairs sing loud, prolonged duets: fast, rattling series of shrill notes that swell and fade. Also harsh, short calls.
Recording: Jacob Wijpkema — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
22–23 cm, sturdy, with a straight, strong bill, a long tail and an erectile crest. The plumage is mostly plain cinnamon-rufous, the underparts slightly paler; the crest is greyish to grey-brown. The eye is pale yellow to whitish. The sexes are alike. Juveniles are duller, with a shorter crest.
Confusion species
Brown Cacholote Pseudoseisura lophotes is larger and darker brown, with a dark crest, and lives further south in the Chaco. Rufous Hornero Furnarius rufus is smaller, without a crest, with a whitish throat, and walks a lot on the ground. Greater Thornbird Phacellodomus ruber also builds stick nests, but is smaller, with a rufous crown without a crest and a pale belly.
Habitat
Gallery forest, forest edges and groves in savanna, cerrado and dry woodland, also farmyards and pasture with scattered trees, in the lowlands up to about 500 m. It forages in pairs on the ground and on branches for insects and other invertebrates. The nest is a large, closed structure of sticks with an entrance tunnel, in a tree, sometimes on a post or building.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Bolivia: in the lowlands of Beni and of northern and eastern Santa Cruz, locally into the adjacent lowlands of Cochabamba. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in south-western Brazil (including the Pantanal) and northern Paraguay.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
On ranches in the savannas around Trinidad in Beni, pairs sit on fence posts and in trees near the buildings; the duet carries far in the early morning. The large stick nests mark the site.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species also occurs in cattle country and the population is considered stable.
Scientific name
Pseudoseisura unirufa | (d'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye, 1838)
D'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye described the species in 1838 as Anabates unirufus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Pseudoseisura was introduced in 1853 by Reichenbach. The genus name combines Greek pseudos, 'false', with seisoura, a bird mentioned by Hesychius of Alexandria and thought to be a wagtail. The species name unirufa combines Latin uni-, 'one', and rufus, 'rufous': uniformly rufous. The specimen the first description was based on came from Moxos, Bolivia.