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Southern Nightingale-Wren | Microcerculus marginatus
Zuidelijke nachtegaalwinterkoning | Soterrey pechiescamado
The Southern Nightingale-Wren is a small, brown, almost tailless wren of the forest floor with a whitish throat and breast. Its song, a long series of pure whistles that slowly descend, is a familiar sound in the forests of Costa Rica and Panama. Its range extends far into South America.
Voice
The song is a long series of clear, pure whistles that starts rapidly and then gradually drops in pitch, with ever-longer pauses between the notes; the last notes sound far apart. The call is a sharp chik.
Recording: Daan van der Hoeven — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
10–11 cm. Stocky, with a very short tail, long legs and a long, thin bill. Upperparts dark rufous-brown. Throat and breast whitish, flanks and belly brown with dark scaling. Young birds are darker and more heavily scaled. It constantly bobs its rear end.
Confusion species
Northern Nightingale-Wren Microcerculus philomela has dark brownish-grey underparts and a song of notes at random pitches; it lives on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and further north. The wood wrens Henicorhina have a black-and-white striped head.
Habitat
Floor and undergrowth of humid evergreen lowland, foothill and lower montane forest, especially undisturbed forest, often near ravines and streams. It searches leaf litter for insects.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area in south-western Costa Rica, on the Pacific slope, and in Panama. Outside the guide area over much of northern South America, including Amazonia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen in the forests of south-western Costa Rica and along Pipeline Road (Camino del Oleoducto) in Panama for the descending series of whistles; the bird itself is hard to see.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Widespread, but dependent on forest with undisturbed undergrowth.
Scientific name
Microcerculus marginatus | (Sclater, 1855)
Sclater described the species in 1855 as Heterocnemis marginata; 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. marginatus is Latin for 'edged, bordered', after the dark-edged feathers of the underparts. The specimen the first description was based on came from Bogotá, Colombia (trade skin).