All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Rufous-naped Ground Tyrant
Rufous-naped Ground Tyrant | Muscisaxicola rufivertex
Roodnekgrondtiran | Dormilona nuquirroja | Dormilona-de-nuca-ruiva
Rufous-naped Ground Tyrant is a small, grey ground tyrant with a sharply defined rufous patch on the crown and nape. It lives lower than most relatives and also occurs on dry, shrubby slopes on the western flank of the Andes. In Peru and Bolivia it is present year-round.
Voice
Usually silent. Gives a soft, high tseet.
Recording: Dan Lane — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
16–17 cm, upright, with long black legs and a thin bill. The upperparts are pale grey to greyish brown. On the hindcrown and nape is a bright rufous, sharply demarcated patch. A short white stripe runs from the bill to above the eye. The underparts are greyish white. The tail is black with white outer edges. The sexes are alike; in juveniles the nape patch is fainter.
Confusion species
Puna Ground Tyrant Muscisaxicola juninensis is browner, with a diffuse, gradually blending cinnamon-brown crown patch. White-browed Ground Tyrant Muscisaxicola albilora has a long white supercilium and a browner back. Ochre-naped Ground Tyrant Muscisaxicola flavinucha is larger, with a white forehead and an ochre-yellow nape patch. Cinereous Ground Tyrant Muscisaxicola cinereus lacks a coloured nape patch.
Habitat
Dry, stony slopes with scattered shrubs and grass, puna, field edges and bare ground in the highlands, mostly between 2500 and 4800 m; locally lower on the western slope. It runs over the ground and catches insects. The nest is in a cavity among stones or in a wall.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Peru: in the Andes of the centre and south, mainly on the dry western slope and in dry valleys, from Áncash and Lima to Arequipa, Moquegua, Tacna and Puno. Bolivia: in the Andes in the west. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in northern and central Chile and in western Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search dry, stony slopes and field edges above 2500 m in southern Peru, for example in the Colca valley.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated in the current species limits. As far as known, the population in the guide area is not under pressure.
Scientific name
Muscisaxicola rufivertex | d'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye, 1837
D'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye described the species in 1837 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. He introduced the genus Muscisaxicola in that same work. The genus name is a blend of the genera Muscicapa (flycatchers) and Saxicola (stonechats and whinchats). The species name comes from Latin rufus, 'red, rufous', and vertex, 'crown'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cobija, Antofagasta, Chile.