All species › Passerines › Ovenbirds and woodcreepers › Rusty-vented Canastero
Rusty-vented Canastero | Asthenes dorbignyi
Roodbuikcanastero | Canastero rojizo | Lenheiro-de-crisso-ferrugíneo
The Rusty-vented Canastero is a greyish-brown canastero of dry scrub, cactus slopes and Polylepis groves in the Andes of southern Peru and Bolivia. It skulks through low shrubbery and sings with its tail raised from the top of a bush. The name refers to the rusty undertail coverts.
Voice
The song is a dry trill that accelerates and drops slightly. Calls with sharp chik notes.
Recording: Francisco Rivas Fuenzalida — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
15–16 cm, with a straight, pointed bill and a fairly long tail. The upperparts are greyish brown, with a rufous patch on the wing. A faint, pale eyebrow runs behind the eye. The throat has a small orange-rufous patch, the rest of the underparts is greyish white, with rufous undertail coverts. The tail is blackish, with rufous outer feathers. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Pale-tailed Canastero Asthenes huancavelicae of central Peru has pale buff to whitish outer tail feathers. Berlepsch's Canastero Asthenes berlepschi is warmer brown, with more rufous on the breast and flanks, and occurs only in a small area in Bolivia. Cordilleran Canastero Asthenes modesta is plainer, without an obvious wing patch, and lives on the ground in open grassland. Canyon Canastero Asthenes pudibunda is more rufous, with a plain rufous tail, and lives in rocky canyons.
Habitat
Dry scrub with cacti, rocky slopes, field edges and Polylepis groves in the dry Andes, mostly between 2500 and 4300 m. It forages in pairs in shrubs and on the ground for insects. The nest is a large, closed ball of thorny twigs with a side entrance, in a shrub or cactus.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Peru in the Andes of the south-west, in Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna. In Bolivia in the western and southern Andes, from La Paz south to Tarija. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in northern Chile and north-western Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search shrubby, dry slopes with cacti, especially in the early morning when the birds sing from a bush top.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Clearing of scrub and Polylepis and overgrazing degrade the habitat locally.
Scientific name
Asthenes dorbignyi | (Reichenbach, 1853)
Reichenbach described the species in 1853 as Bathmidura Dorbignyi; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Asthenes was introduced in 1853 by Reichenbach. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek asthenēs, 'insignificant', 'weak'. The species name honours Alcide d'Orbigny (1802–1857), a French naturalist who travelled in South America from 1826 to 1834. The specimen the first description was based on came from Palca, Cochabamba, Bolivia.