Rufous-tailed Xenops (Microxenops milleri)

Identification & Behavior: ~11 cm (4.3 in). The Rufous-tailed Xenops has the head, mantle, and underparts heavily streaked with buff. It has a buffy supercilium but no white malar stripe. The bill is slender and straight. The wing feathers are blackish with a rufous middle band readily seen when the bird flies. The wing coverts are dusky edged with rufous. The tail is rufous without black feathers. It creeps on multiple directions on trunks and limbs in the canopy of tall terra firme and varzea forests. It is similar to the Slender-billed Xenops but is distinguished by not having a white malar stripe, by foraging in the canopy of mature forests, and by having a rufous tail without black feathers.  

Status: The Rufous-tailed Xenops is rare but widespread in Amazonia where it appears not to approach the foothill of the Andes. It also occurs in Co, Ec, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Pico-Lezna de Cola Rufa.

Sub-species: Rufous-tailed Xenops (Microxenops milleri), Chapman, 1914.

Meaning of Name: Microxenops: Gr. mikros= little and Xenops= Genus Xenops. A small version of a member of the genus Xenops. milleri: In honor of Leo Edward Miller (1887-1952) US collector in tropical America 1910-1917.

See more of the Family Furnariidae