Mouse-colored Thistletail (Asthenes griseomurina)

Identification & Behavior: ~19.5 cm (7.6 in). The Mouse-colored Thistletail has gray-brown upperparts and crown. The underparts are dull gray-brown. The throat is whitish without an orange chin patch. The tail is very long rufous-brown and strongly graduated with wispy tips. It has a white eye-ring. It forages in humid scrub and forest edges generally near treeline. It is similar to the Azara’s Spinetail but is distinguished by uniform gray-brown upperparts and crows, dull plumage, by a diagnostic white eye-ring, and by ranging at higher elevations.

Status: The Mouse-colored Thistletail is uncommon in montane forests of the east slope of the Andes on the north side of the Marañon Valley at elevations between 2000 -3300 m. It also occurs in Ec.

Name in Spanish: Cola-Cardo Murino.

Sub-species: Mouse-colored Thistletail (Asthenes griseomurina), P. L. Sclater, 1882.

Meaning of Name: Asthenes: Gr. a= a negative prefix and sthenos= power. asthenes= insignificant, powerless. griseomurina: L. griseum= gray and mus, muris= mouse. Murinus= mouse, of mice.

See more of the Family Furnariidae