Line-cheeked Spinetail (Cranioleuca antisiensis)

Identification & Behavior: ~15 cm (6 in). The Line-cheeked Spinetail has rufous wings, tail, and crown. The mantle and underparts are rufous-brown. The throat is whitish bordered with a tinge of buffy. It has a white superciliary and narrow eye-ring. It forages in the midstory and sub-canopy of humid scrub and sparse woodlands. It was formerly considered a separate species from Baron’s Spinetail. Recent genetic evidence suggests that both forms should be lumped into a single species known as a Line-cheeked Spinetail.

The taxonomy of Line-cheeked Spinetail is complicated as size variation among populations of present species is substantial but somewhat irregular. It appears to correlate with elevation (e.g. in Ancash, birds of high elevations in N are much larger than low-elevation ones in S); moreover, inter-locality variation is significant, with virtually every population sample seemingly diagnosable on basis of size and plumage characters, and many at least as distinctive as currently accepted races.

Status: The Line-cheeked Spinetail is uncommon but widespread on the northwest slope of the Andes, south to Southern Cajamarca and northern La Libertad. It is known to range at elevations between 2000-4400 m. The Line-cheeked Spinetail also occurs in Ec.

Name in Spanish: Cola-Espina de Mejilla Lineada.

Sub-species: Line-cheeked Spinetail (Cranioleuca antisiensis palamblae), Chapman, 1923. Andes of N Peru (S Tumbes, Piura and Cajamarca S to Lima).
Cranioleuca antisiensis baroni (Salvin), 1895. Andes of N & C Peru (C Cajamarca and S Amazonas S to La Libertad, Ancash and WC Huánuco).
Cranioleuca antisiensis capitalis J. T. Zimmer, 1924. Andes of C Peru (E Huánuco, Pasco).
Cranioleuca antisiensis zaratensis Koepcke, 1961. Andes of WC Peru (Lima).

Meaning of Name: Cranioleuca: Gr. kranion= skull, head and leukos= white.
antisiensis: L. Antisianus or Antisiensis Andean, of the Andes Mountains. Inca anti copper, which was mined there (cf. Antisana, a volcano in Ecuador; “Latinized from Antis, name of a Peruvian Indian tribe” (Richmond 1908)).

See more of the Family Furnariidae