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Northern Nightingale-Wren | Microcerculus philomela
Noordelijke nachtegaalwinterkoning | Chivirín ruiseñor
The Northern Nightingale-Wren is a small, dark brown, almost tailless wren of the floor of humid forest. It is hard to see, but its slow series of pure whistles at varying pitches is a characteristic sound of the rainforest. The species occurs only in the guide area.
Voice
The song starts with a short burst of rapid notes and then turns into a long series of slow, pure whistles, each at a different, seemingly random pitch, with long pauses in between. It can continue for minutes. The call is a sharp chik.
Recording: Alfonso Auerbach — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
10–11 cm. Stocky, with a very short tail, long legs and a long, thin bill. Upperparts dark rufous-brown. Underparts dark brownish-grey with dark scaling, the throat sometimes slightly paler. It constantly bobs its rear end as it walks over the forest floor.
Confusion species
Southern Nightingale-Wren Microcerculus marginatus has a whitish throat and breast and a descending song; in Costa Rica it lives mainly on the Pacific slope. Grey-breasted Wood Wren Henicorhina leucophrys and White-breasted Wood Wren Henicorhina leucosticta have a black-and-white striped head and a clear supercilium.
Habitat
Floor and undergrowth of humid evergreen lowland and foothill forest, especially undisturbed forest with dense undergrowth; locally higher on mountain slopes. It searches leaf litter and dead wood for insects.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Caribbean slope of southern Mexico (mainly Chiapas) through Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua to Costa Rica. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Usually only heard. Wait quietly on a forest trail near a singing bird; with patience it can sometimes be seen walking over the forest floor, bobbing its rear end.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. It depends on large, undisturbed forest and is therefore vulnerable to deforestation and fragmentation in the Caribbean lowlands.
Scientific name
Microcerculus philomela | (Salvin, 1861)
Salvin described the species in 1861 as Cyphorhinus philomela; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Microcerculus was introduced in 1862 by Sclater. Microcerculus is Greek, from mikros 'small' and kerkos 'tail', with a Latin diminutive suffix: 'tiny-tailed', after the very short tail. philomela is the Greek poetic name for the nightingale (after the mythical Philomela), after the fine whistled song. The specimen the first description was based on came from Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.