Pale-breasted Spinetail (Synallaxis albescens)

Identification & Behavior: ~14.5 cm (5.7 in). The Pale-breasted Spinetail has a grayish mantle and rufous crown. The folded wing is brown with rufous wing coverts. The tail is gray-brown. The throat is whitish with black on the lower end. The underparts are grayish with a pale center of the belly. It forages in tall grass mixed with scrub and shrubbery, second growth, and forest edges. It is similar to the Dark-breasted Spinetail but is distinguished by a smaller size and an overall paler and grayer plumage. The voice is essential in identifying these spinetails.

Status: The Pale-breasted Spinetail is known in Peru only from the Pampas del Heath in extreme southeast Peru, where it is apparently rare. It also occurs in Co, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Cola-Espina de Pecho Blanco.

Sub-species: Pale-breasted Spinetail (Synallaxis albescens australis), J. T. Zimmer, 1935.

Meaning of Name: Synallaxis: Gr. sunallaxeos, sunallaxis = exchange. albescens: L. albus= white. albescens, albescentis= whitish.

See more of the Family Furnariidae