Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail (Leptasthenura pileata) — Vorstman's Guide to the Birds of the Andes and West Coast

Voice

The song is a trill of about two seconds that becomes slightly louder and faster, repeated every three to six seconds. Calls are a short tsak and a sharp, high tchit.

Listen: SongXC387839

Recording: Dries Van de Loock — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto

Identification

15–16 cm, small and slender, with a short bill and a long, graduated tail. The crown is rufous with narrow white streaks, the face grey with a faint white eyebrow. The back is blackish with white streaks, the underparts greyish brown. In the north (cajabambae) the crown has black streaks; in the south (latistriata) the back streaks are broader and more contrasting, the underparts darker grey and the breast more heavily streaked. The sexes are alike.

Confusion species

Streak-backed Tit-Spinetail Leptasthenura striata partly shares the same areas, but has a black crown with rufous streaks (a cinnamon crown in Ancash and Lima), a whitish throat and paler grey underparts. Andean Tit-Spinetail Leptasthenura andicola has a clear white eyebrow and heavily streaked underparts. White-browed Tit-Spinetail Leptasthenura xenothorax has a broad white eyebrow and lives only in Apurímac and Cusco.

Habitat

Arid montane scrub and woodland remnants, especially with Polylepis, mostly between 2900 and 4200 m, locally down to 2000 m. It forages in pairs or small groups, often in mixed flocks, in shrubs and low trees for insects and other arthropods. Nothing is known about its breeding biology.

Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.

Range and movements

Endemic to Peru: on the western slope of the Andes and in the inter-Andean valleys, from Cajamarca south through Ancash, Lima and Junín to Huancavelica, Ayacucho and Arequipa. Not known from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia or the Galápagos.

Resident
dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Density map from the occurrence records of GBIF (2006-10-01 – 2026-09-30), counted per 1.41° grid cell and per month and divided by all bird records in that same cell — so the number of birdwatchers does not shape the picture. Colour depth follows that share and fades out gradually, so the map does not follow national borders. Country outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).

How and when to look

In the Santa Eulalia valley above Lima, around San Pedro de Casta, the species lives in scrub and Polylepis along the road; listen for the swelling trill.

Conservation status

Least Concern. The species is fairly common, the population is considered stable and no immediate threats are known.

Scientific name

Leptasthenura pileata | Sclater, 1881

Sclater described the species in 1881 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Leptasthenura was introduced in 1853 by Reichenbach. The genus name combines Greek leptos, 'thin', asthenēs, 'weak', and oura, 'tail'. The species name pileata comes from Latin pileatus, 'capped', after the rusty crown. The specimen the first description was based on came from Andes above Lima, Peru.