All species › Passerines › Ovenbirds and woodcreepers › Santa Marta Foliage-Gleaner
Santa Marta Foliage-Gleaner | Clibanornis rufipectus
Santamartabladspeurder | Ticotico de Santa Marta | Barranqueiro-de-santa-marta
The Santa Marta Foliage-Gleaner occurs only in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia. It was long treated as a form of Ruddy Foliage-Gleaner, but differs clearly from it in voice and plumage. It lives close to the ground in dark, forested ravines.
Voice
The song differs clearly from that of Ruddy Foliage-Gleaner. The calls are churring, grating notes, two or three in a row while foraging and three or four in alarm.
Recording: Bram Vogels — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
18–20 cm, with a straight, dark bill. The face is rufous-brown, the crown and back medium brown. The wings are rufous-brown with rusty edges and the tail is dark chestnut. The throat is pale rufous and contrasts with the browner underparts. A ring of bare, bluish skin surrounds the eye. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
No other Clibanornis occurs in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Lineated Foliage-Gleaner Syndactyla subalaris and Montane Foliage-Gleaner Anabacerthia striaticollis are streaked or have a pale eye-ring and throat, and forage higher in the forest. The leaftossers Sclerurus have a shorter, dark tail and walk on the ground.
Habitat
The undergrowth of semi-humid primary and secondary forest and of shade-coffee plantations, roughly from 600 to 1900 m, with a preference for dark ravines. It forages low, usually within half a metre of the ground, searching leaf litter and dead leaves for insects. It is absent from sun-grown coffee and from small patches of young secondary growth.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: only the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search forested ravines and shade coffee on the lower and middle slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Listen for the grating calls close to the ground and wait near an opening in the undergrowth.
Conservation status
Vulnerable. The population is estimated at 9300 to 13,100 mature individuals and is declining because of clearing and fragmentation of the forest for coffee and tourist infrastructure. About 40 per cent of the range lies within protected areas.
Scientific name
Clibanornis rufipectus | (Bangs, 1898)
Bangs described the species in 1898 as Automolus rufipectus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Clibanornis was introduced in 1873 by Sclater & Salvin. The genus name comes from Greek klibanos, 'oven', and ornis, 'bird', referring to its relationship with the ovenbirds (Furnarius). The species name comes from Latin rufus, 'rufous', and pectus, 'breast'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Pueblo Viejo, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.