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Striated Earthcreeper | Geocerthia serrana
Gestreepte grondkruiper | Bandurrita estriada | Bandurrita-estriada
The Striated Earthcreeper is an ovenbird endemic to the Peruvian Andes, with a long, decurved bill and a streaked head and underparts. It lives on shrubby slopes and in Polylepis woodland high in the mountains and is the only species of the genus Geocerthia.
Voice
The song is a series of rapid, shrill notes running into a trill, often from a rock or bush. The call is a sharp, high tseet.
Recording: Dries Van de Loock — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
18–20 cm, with a long, slightly decurved, dark bill and a fairly long, rufous tail. The upperparts are brown, the crown and mantle finely streaked pale. A pale supercilium. The throat is whitish, the breast and belly brown with distinct pale streaks. The wings have rufous edges. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Buff-breasted Earthcreeper Upucerthia validirostris has a similar bill, but almost unstreaked, buff underparts. Cinclodes such as Buff-winged Cinclodes Cinclodes fuscus have a shorter, straighter bill and a pale wing band. Canasteros (Asthenes) have a short, straight bill.
Habitat
Shrubby slopes, Polylepis woodland, montane forest edges and rocky grassland, mostly between 2500 and 4300 m. It forages on the ground and among moss and leaf litter for insects, probing the soil with its bill. The nest is in a cavity in an earth bank or among rocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Endemic to Peru: in the Andes of the north and centre of the country, south to the south-centre. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Galápagos.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search Polylepis groves and shrubby slopes above 3000 m, for example in the Cordillera Blanca; the bird sings early in the morning from a rock or bush.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Polylepis woodland and high-elevation scrub are degraded by cutting, fires and grazing.
Scientific name
Geocerthia serrana | (Taczanowski, 1875) (GBIF: Upucerthia serrana)
Taczanowski described the species in 1875 as Upucerthia serrana; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Geocerthia was introduced in 2009 by Chesser & Claramunt. The genus name comes from Greek geō-, 'earth, ground', and Certhia, the treecreeper genus; it refers to the terrestrial habits and the treecreeper-like bill. The species name comes from Spanish serrano, 'of the mountains' (Latin serra, 'saw', hence mountain range), after the Andes. The specimen the first description was based on came from Junín, Peru.