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Stiles's Tapaculo | Scytalopus stilesi
Stiles' tapaculo | Churrín de Stiles | Macuquinho-de-stiles
Stiles's Tapaculo is a dark grey tapaculo with rufous flanks found only in the Colombian Andes. It was described in 2005; before that the birds were assigned to other Scytalopus species. It lives in the understory of humid montane forest at middle elevations.
Voice
The song is a long series of rapidly repeated, short notes from dense undergrowth, with a different rhythm from that of Spillmann's Tapaculo. Also short calls.
Recording: Daniel Hinckley — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11.5 cm, round, with a short tail, short wings and fairly long legs. The male is dark grey, slightly paler below, with a brown rump and rufous rear flanks barred dark. The female is washed browner. Juveniles are brown with dark bars.
Confusion species
Spillmann's Tapaculo Scytalopus spillmanni lives higher, in cloud forest, and sings differently. White-crowned Tapaculo Scytalopus atratus usually lives lower and often has a white crown spot. Blackish Tapaculo Scytalopus latrans is blackish, without barred flanks. Tatama Tapaculo Scytalopus alvarezlopezi lives on the western slope of the Western Andes and is more blackish. In tapaculos the song is the main identification feature.
Habitat
Understory of humid montane and cloud forest, also old secondary forest and dense vegetation at forest edges and in ravines, roughly between 1400 and 2200 m. It forages on or just above the ground for small arthropods. Little is known about its breeding.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Only in Colombia: in the Central Andes, from Antioquia south to about Quindío and Tolima, and in the north of the Western Andes in Antioquia. 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
Listen in forest reserves at middle elevations in Antioquia, such as around Anorí, and on the slopes of the Central Andes in the coffee zone for the long series of notes from the undergrowth.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Much of the montane forest in the Central Andes has been cleared, but the species also lives in old secondary forest and smaller forest remnants.
Scientific name
Scytalopus stilesi | Cuervo, Cadena, Krabbe & Renjifo, 2005
Cuervo, Cadena, Krabbe & Renjifo described the species in 2005 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Scytalopus was introduced in 1837 by Gould. The genus name combines Greek skutalē or skutalon, 'stick', with pous, 'foot'. The species name stilesi honours F. Gary Stiles, American ornithologist who worked in Costa Rica and Colombia. The specimen the first description was based on came from Amalfi, Antioquia, Colombia.