All species › Passerines › New World warblers › Pale-legged Warbler
Pale-legged Warbler | Myiothlypis signata
Bleekpootzanger | Reinita paticlara | Pula-pula-de-pernas-claras
The Pale-legged Warbler is an olive and yellow warbler of the Yungas montane forest, from central Peru to Bolivia and north-western Argentina. It closely resembles the larger Citrine Warbler, but has pale legs. It lives low in the understorey, usually in pairs or in mixed flocks.
Voice
A fast, excited series of chip notes that accelerates, sometimes sung by a pair together. The call is a dry tsip.
Recording: Jacob Wijpkema — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm. The upperparts are olive, the underparts yellow with olive flanks. There is a short yellow streak in front of the eye and a narrow yellow ring or spots around the eye; the cheeks are darker olive. The legs are pale pink to yellowish-brown. The sexes are alike. Young birds are duller.
Confusion species
Citrine Warbler Myiothlypis luteoviridis is larger, with darker legs and, in Peru and Bolivia, a longer yellow supercilium; it often lives somewhat higher. Two-banded Warbler Myiothlypis bivittata has an orange-brown crown stripe bordered by black stripes. Olive hemispinguses (tanagers) have dark legs and a thicker bill.
Habitat
Understorey of humid montane forest, cloud forest and forest edges, often with bamboo, roughly between 1800 and 3000 m. It forages low in the vegetation and sometimes on the ground for insects and spiders. The nest is a domed structure on or near the ground, often on a slope.
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 along the east slope of the Andes, from the centre of the country south to Puno. In Bolivia in the Yungas and montane forests from La Paz to the south of the country. Outside the guide area in north-western Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search the understorey along roads through the Yungas, such as at Cotapata and in the Manu valley; check the leg colour of every olive warbler.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Montane forest is lost locally to clearing.
Scientific name
Myiothlypis signata | (Berlepsch & Sztolcman, 1906)
Berlepsch & Sztolcman described the species in 1906 as Basileuterus signatus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Myiothlypis was introduced in 1851 by Cabanis. The genus name combines Greek muia, 'fly', with thlupis, an unidentified small bird. The species name comes from Latin signatus, 'marked, distinguished'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Idma, Santa Ana, Cusco, Peru.