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Stripe-breasted Wren | Cantorchilus thoracicus
Streepborstwinterkoning | Cucarachero pechirrayado | Garrincha-de-peito-listrado
The Stripe-breasted Wren is a small brown wren of the humid lowlands on the Caribbean side of Central America, with a black-and-white streaked throat and breast. It keeps to the lower and middle levels of the forest, often in vine tangles. The species does not reach the guide area: the nearest population is in Panama, at the western edge of the map.
Voice
Clear, repeated whistled phrases of a few notes, often sung in duet by the pair, and a dry, rattling alarm.
Recording: GABRIEL LEITE — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11–12 cm, with a fairly short tail. The upperparts are warm brown, the wings and tail narrowly barred black. The crown is brown, with a white supercilium; the sides of the head are streaked black and white. The throat and breast are white with broad black streaks, the belly and flanks grey-brown to ochre-brown. The sexes are alike; young birds are duller and more faintly streaked.
Confusion species
Stripe-throated Wren Cantorchilus leucopogon of eastern Panama and the Chocó has only the throat streaked; the breast and belly are plain cinnamon-brown. Bay Wren Cantorchilus nigricapillus is larger, with a black cap and rufous upperparts. White-breasted Wood Wren Henicorhina leucosticta is smaller, with a stubby, often cocked tail and a white, unstreaked breast.
Habitat
Interior and edges of humid lowland forest and tall secondary forest, up to about 1000 m. It searches vine tangles, dead leaves and dense foliage for insects and spiders, usually in pairs. The nest is a domed structure of plant fibres in a shrub or vine.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Does not occur in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia or the Galápagos. Records under this name from Colombia and Ecuador almost certainly refer to Stripe-throated Wren, which was formerly sometimes included in this species. Outside the guide area on the Caribbean side of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and western and central Panama.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
On the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and in central Panama, in forest with many vines; pairs give themselves away by their duets.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Common in suitable forest within its small range; locally affected by deforestation.
Scientific name
Cantorchilus thoracicus | (Salvin, 1865)
Salvin described the species in 1865 as Thryothorus thoracicus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Cantorchilus was introduced in 2006 by Mann, Barker, Graves, Dingess-Mann & Slater. The genus name combines Latin cantus, 'song', with Greek orkhilos, 'wren'. The species name comes from Greek thōrax, 'breast', for the streaked breast. The specimen the first description was based on came from Tucurrique, Costa Rica.