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Scribble-tailed Canastero | Asthenes maculicauda
Vlekstaartcanastero | Canastero estriado | Lenheiro-de-cauda-rabiscada
The Scribble-tailed Canastero is a large, streaked canastero of tall bunchgrass in southeastern Peru and western Bolivia. The name refers to the tail: the pointed tail feathers carry an irregular, scribbled pattern of buff, dark brown and olive-brown. It lives hidden in the grass tussocks and sings from a tussock or shrub.
Voice
The song is a series of short tree notes running into a fast, descending trill. The call is a rising, whistled tooeee.
Recording: Ross Gallardy — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
17 cm, with a long tail of pointed feathers. The forehead and crown are rufous with dark streaks, and the back is streaked black and buff. The uppertail coverts and central tail feathers are irregularly patterned in buff, dark brown and olive-brown; the other tail feathers are greyish brown with rufous and olive-brown edges. The chin has a small orange-rufous patch. The underparts are buff with fine streaks on the breast. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Junin Canastero Asthenes virgata is very similar, but lacks the rufous forehead and scribbled tail pattern, and lives mainly farther northwest in Peru. Streak-backed Canastero Asthenes wyatti has a less streaked crown, almost unstreaked underparts and rufous outer tail feathers. Cordilleran Canastero Asthenes modesta has an unstreaked back and lives in drier, more open terrain.
Habitat
Humid grassland with tall bunchgrass and low shrubs near the treeline, mostly between 3000 and 4300 m, locally lower. It forages for insects and other invertebrates among the grass tussocks. The nest is a domed ball of grass, low in the vegetation.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Peru: only in the Andes of southern Puno. Bolivia: in the Andes of the west and centre, in La Paz and Cochabamba. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in northwestern Argentina, from Jujuy to Catamarca.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Walk along tall bunchgrass near the treeline in the morning, for example above the yungas valleys of La Paz. Listen for the descending trill and the rising whistle.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Burning and overgrazing of grassland can degrade its habitat locally.
Scientific name
Asthenes maculicauda | (Berlepsch, 1901)
Berlepsch described the species in 1901 as Siptornis maculicauda; 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 comes from Latin macula, 'spot', and cauda, 'tail', for the spotted tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from Iquico, La Paz, Bolivia.