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Trilling Gnatwren | Ramphocaenus melanurus
Zwartstaartmuggensluiper | Soterillo picudo
The Trilling Gnatwren is a small bird of the undergrowth with a long, thin bill and a short, often cocked tail. It belongs to the same family as the gnatcatchers. In the region it occurs only in Trinidad, with its own subspecies trinitatis. The species was formerly called Long-billed Gnatwren; after a split based on a 2018 genetic study the remaining part was named Trilling Gnatwren.
Voice
The song is a dry, even trill on one pitch, drrrrrrrrrr, lasting a few seconds, which gives the species its English name. Also a soft, dry chatter and short chek calls.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13 cm, much of it bill: the bill is straight, thin and about as long as the head. Upperparts grey-brown, sides of the head warm rufous. Throat white, the rest of the underparts pale buff, warmer on the flanks. The short tail is black, the outer feathers tipped white; the bird often holds it cocked and wags it sideways. Trinidad birds are paler below, with buff flanks and head sides. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Southern House Wren Troglodytes musculus has a much shorter bill, a barred brown tail and no black in the tail. Rufous-breasted Wren Pheugopedius rutilus has a rufous breast, a black-and-white streaked throat and face and a much shorter bill. The combination of a long needle-like bill and a black, cocked tail is distinctive.
Habitat
Dense undergrowth, vines and tangles in dry and moist forest, secondary forest and forest edges, from the lowlands into the montane forest of the Northern Range. It forages in pairs, often with mixed flocks, for insects and spiders among vines and dense foliage, probing curled leaves and crevices with its long bill. The nest is an open cup low in the undergrowth.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
In the region only in Trinidad, where it is widespread in forest; not on Tobago. Outside the region from southern Mexico through Central America to Peru and Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Along forest trails in Trinidad's Northern Range, for example around the Arima Valley, and in forest in the centre and south. The trilling song is the best lead; the bird itself usually stays hidden in vines and is seen only with patience.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species has a large range and declines only locally through forest loss.
Scientific name
Ramphocaenus melanurus | Vieillot, 1819
Vieillot described the species in 1819 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. He introduced the genus Ramphocaenus in that same work. Ramphocaenus is Greek, from rhamphos 'bill' and kainos 'new, strange': 'strange bill', after the long, thin bill. melanurus is Greek, from melas 'black' and oura 'tail', after the blackish tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from vicinity of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.