Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail (Leptasthenura pileata)

Identification & Behavior: ~17 cm (6.6 in). The Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail has a grayish mantle streaked with whitish. The crown is rufous in the adult and less saturated and more streaked with dusky in younger plumage stages and in the cajabambe subspecies. The underparts are grayish also streaked with whitish. The wing has a broad pale band with some rufous but generally, it shows no rufous on the folded wing. The tail is gray, very long, strongly graduated, and ends at a wispy fork. It forages in Polylepis woodlands and associated shrubbery. In parts of its range, it forages in Andean scrub. It is similar to the Streaked Tit-Spinetail but is distinguished by ranging at lower elevations in areas they overlap, by having little to no rufous on the wing band and folded wing, and by having heavily streaked underparts.

Status: Endemic. The Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail is fairly common on the west slope of the Andes and in the Maranon and upper Huallaga Valleys at elevations ranging between 2000-4200 m.

Name in Spanish: Tijeral de Corona Castaña.

Sub-species: Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail (Leptasthenura pileata cajabambae), Chapman, 1921.  N & C Peru (Cajamarca S to Ancash, and dry interior slopes of E Andes S to Junín).
(Leptasthenura pileata pileata), P. L. Sclater, 1881.   WC Peru (Chillón and Rimac Valleys, in Lima).
(Leptasthenura pileata latistriata), Koepcke, 1965. SC Peru (W Huancavelica, Ayacucho).

Meaning of Name: Leptasthenura: Gr. leptos= thin and asthenes = weak and oura= tail. pileata: L. pileus= felt-cap and pileatus= capped.

See more of the Family Furnariidae