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Grey-throated Leaftosser | Sclerurus albigularis
Grijskeelbladkrabber | Tirahojas gorgigrís
The Grey-throated Leaftosser is a dark brown ground bird of humid forest in the hills and lower mountains, with a grey throat and a rufous breast. In the guide area it occurs only in Costa Rica and western Panama. It searches for food under dead leaves and is shy and hard to see.
Voice
The song is a series of high, somewhat grating whistles that rise and then accelerate. The call is a sharp, short cheek, often given when flushed.
Recording: Brayan Coral Jaramillo — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
16–17 cm. Upperparts dark olive-brown, rump rufous; tail short and blackish. Throat pale grey, sharply demarcated from a warm rufous breast; belly darker brown. Bill fairly long and straight, blackish with a paler base to the lower mandible. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
Tawny-throated Leaftosser Sclerurus mexicanus has a rufous rather than grey throat and a slightly decurved bill. Scaly-throated Leaftosser Sclerurus guatemalensis lives mainly lower and has a whitish, scaly throat and a scaled breast without rufous.
Habitat
Floor of humid evergreen forest in the foothills and lower mountains, mainly in undisturbed forest with plenty of leaf litter. It searches for insects and other invertebrates under dead leaves. It digs a nest tunnel in an earth bank.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area only in the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama. Outside the guide area locally in northern and western South America, including Venezuela and Colombia, along the eastern slope of the Andes to Bolivia, and on Trinidad and Tobago.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
One of the hardest leaftossers to find: best located by listening in humid montane forest for the song and for tossed leaves, especially early in the morning.
Conservation status
Not threatened according to the current assessment. Scarce and sensitive to loss of undisturbed forest.
Scientific name
Sclerurus albigularis | Sclater & Salvin, 1869
Sclater & Salvin described the species in 1869 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Sclerurus was introduced in 1827 by Swainson. Sclerurus is Greek, from sklēros 'stiff, hard' and oura 'tail', after the stiff tail feathers. albigularis is Latin, from albus 'white' and gula 'throat', after the pale throat. The specimen the first description was based on came from Venezuela (Cumbre de Valencia).