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Piura Hemispingus | Sphenopsis piurae
Piurasfenops | Hemispingo de Piura | Sanhaço-de-piura
The Piura Hemispingus is a small tanager of montane forest on the western slope of the Andes in southern Ecuador and northwestern Peru. A black mask, a long white supercilium and a rufous-brown breast characterize it. It was long regarded as a form of Black-eared Hemispingus but differs in plumage and song.
Voice
The song is a fast, rattling twitter, often given as a duet by a pair, and sounds clearly different from that of Black-eared Hemispingus. The call is a high tsit.
Recording: Peter de Rouw — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14 cm, with a thin, pointed, dark bill. Crown and nape grey. A long white supercilium separates the crown from a broad black mask across the lores and ear-coverts; the chin is blackish. Upperparts, wings and tail olive-green. Throat and breast rufous-brown to cinnamon, belly paler buff. Sexes alike. Young birds are duller, with a less sharply defined mask.
Confusion species
Western Hemispingus Sphenopsis ochracea farther north on the western slope is dull, with hardly any mask and ochraceous underparts. Black-eared Hemispingus Sphenopsis melanotis occurs on the eastern slope; northern birds have a fainter supercilium. Black-capped Hemispingus Kleinothraupis atropileus is larger, with a black crown and ochraceous-yellow underparts.
Habitat
Understory and edges of humid and semi-humid montane forest on the western slope, also scrub and bamboo, roughly between 1800 and 2900 m. It forages in pairs low in the undergrowth for insects, often in mixed flocks. Little is known about the nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Ecuador on the western slope of the Andes in the south, mainly in Loja. In Peru on the western slope of the Andes in the northwest, in Piura, Lambayeque and Cajamarca. Absent from Colombia, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
How and when to look
Search forest remnants and forest edges on the western slope in Loja and in the highlands of Piura, for example at Utuana; a pair stays low in the undergrowth and often first reveals itself with its duet.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Its range is limited, and montane forest on the western slope is heavily fragmented by clearing and grazing.
Scientific name
Sphenopsis piurae | (Chapman, 1923)
Chapman described the species in 1923 as Hemispingus piurae; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Sphenopsis was introduced in 1862 by Sclater. The genus name combines Greek sphēn, 'wedge', and opsis, 'appearance'. The species name refers to Piura in northwestern Peru. The specimen the first description was based on came from Palambla, Piura, Peru.