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Northern Chestnut-breasted Wren | Cyphorhinus dichrous
Noordelijke bruinborstwinterkoning | Cucarachero pechicastaño del norte | Uirapuru-de-peito-castanho-do-norte
The Northern Chestnut-breasted Wren is a stocky, dark brown wren with an orange-brown throat and breast, of the floor of humid montane forest in Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru. It was treated as one species together with Southern Chestnut-breasted Wren until the two were separated, mainly on the basis of their songs. Its slow series of a few pure whistles is often the only sign of its presence in cloud forest.
Voice
The song is a slow series of usually three or four clear, ethereal whistles at different pitches, repeated with long pauses. The call is a harsh, rasping churr.
No recording with a suitable Creative Commons licence is available for this species yet.
Identification
14–15 cm, stocky, with a fairly short tail and a stout bill with a high culmen. The crown is sooty dark brown, the back and rump deep dark brown, the wings and tail dark brown with fine, dark barring. The sides of the head, the throat and the upper breast are deep orange-brown to chestnut, the flanks and lower belly dark brown. No bare blue skin around the eye. The sexes are alike; young birds have a paler lower belly.
Confusion species
Southern Chestnut-breasted Wren Cyphorhinus thoracicus is practically identical in the field and is identified mainly by song and range; as far as known the two do not overlap. Song Wren Cyphorhinus phaeocephalus has bare blue skin around the eye and lives in the lowlands west of the Andes. Musician Wren Cyphorhinus arada has black-and-white streaked neck sides and lives in the Amazonian lowlands, below the zone of this species. Wrens of the genus Cinnycerthia are plainer rufous-brown without a contrasting breast and move through the understorey in noisy groups.
Habitat
Floor and low understorey of humid montane forest and cloud forest rich in epiphytes and moss, mostly between 1100 and 2600 m; on the Pacific side of the Western Andes locally down to 700 m. In pairs or small groups it searches the leaf litter and up to about 1 m above the ground, mainly for beetles and spiders. As in related species, the nest is presumably a covered structure with a side entrance low in the vegetation.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia mainly in the Western and Central Andes. In Ecuador on the eastern slope of the Andes, where it is scarce. In Peru in the north, on the eastern slope; exactly where the boundary with Southern Chestnut-breasted Wren lies is not well known. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In undisturbed cloud forest with dense understorey, especially in the early morning, when the birds sing most; they walk on the forest floor and can usually be followed only by sound.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species depends on intact forest and disappears where montane forest is cleared, but occurs in several protected areas.
Scientific name
Cyphorhinus dichrous | Sclater & Salvin, 1879
Sclater & Salvin described the species in 1879 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Cyphorhinus was introduced in 1844 by Cabanis. The genus name comes from Greek kuphos, 'hump', and rhis, rhinos, 'nose' (here the bill), for the high, arched ridge of the bill. The species name comes from Greek dikhroos, 'two-coloured'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Remedios, Antioquia, Colombia.