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Streak-fronted Thornbird | Phacellodomus striaticeps
Schubkopstekelkruin | Espinero andino | João-de-pau-de-testa-estriada
The Streak-fronted Thornbird is a brown ovenbird of dry scrub high in the Andes of southern Peru and Bolivia. Its rufous forehead is finely streaked pale. It builds its stick nest in shrubs and small trees, often near water.
Voice
A loud, accelerating series of shrill notes, often as a duet. The call is a dry chek.
Recording: GABRIEL LEITE — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
16–17 cm, with a straight, pointed bill and a fairly long tail. The forehead and forecrown are rufous with fine, pale streaks. The upperparts are greyish brown, the lesser wing coverts rufous. A pale supercilium. The underparts are pale buff, the throat paler. The outer tail feathers are rufous. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Spot-breasted Thornbird Phacellodomus maculipectus has a spotted breast and lives lower, in montane forest. Canasteros such as Cordilleran Canastero Asthenes modesta and Sharp-billed Canastero Asthenes pyrrholeuca have an unstreaked forehead and a chin patch, and more often walk on the ground. Rufous-fronted Thornbird Phacellodomus rufifrons lives much lower.
Habitat
Dry scrub, shrubby slopes, Polylepis groves, shrubby stream banks and hedgerows along fields in the Andes, mostly between 2500 and 4000 m. It searches for insects in shrubs and on the ground below. The nest is a large, elongated pile of thorny twigs in a shrub or small tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia and Ecuador: absent. Peru: in the Andes of the south, from Ayacucho and Apurímac through Cusco to Puno. Bolivia: in the Andes from La Paz and Cochabamba to Potosí, Chuquisaca and Tarija. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in north-western Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search shrubby valleys and hedgerows near fields in the highlands, for example in the Sacred Valley near Cusco or around Cochabamba; watch for the stick nests in shrubs and listen for the duet of a pair.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species tolerates small-scale farmland with hedgerows, but locally suffers from the cutting of scrub for firewood.
Scientific name
Phacellodomus striaticeps | (d'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye, 1838)
D'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye described the species in 1838 as Anumbius striaticeps; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Phacellodomus was introduced in 1853 by Reichenbach. The genus name combines Greek phakellos, 'bundle of twigs', and domos, 'house', after the large stick nests. The species name striaticeps comes from Latin striatus, 'streaked', and -ceps, 'headed': 'streak-headed'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Sica Sica, La Paz, Bolivia.