Straight-billed Earthcreeper (Ochetorhynchus ruficaudus)

Identification & Behavior: ~16.5 cm (6.4 in). The Straight-billed Earthcreeper has rufous wings, tail, and flanks. The mantle and crown are rufous-brown. It has a buffy supercilium from behind the eye and a nearly straight bill. The throat and upper breast are whitish grading to rufous streaks towards the belly. It forages in dry Andean scrub interspersed with rocks and boulders where it often sits in a typical posture with the tail cocked. It is distinguished from the similar Buff-breasted Earthcreeper and White-throated Earthcreeper by having a nearly straight bill, a rufous-streaked belly, and by a relatively shorter tail often kept cocked.

Status: The Straight-billed Earthcreeper is uncommon in dry scrub on the west slope of the Andes in southwest Peru at elevations ranging between 3500-4500 m. It also occurs in Bo and Ch.

Name in Spanish: Bandurrita de Pico Recto.

Sub-species: Straight-billed Earthcreeper (Ochetorhynchus ruficaudus) montanus (d’Orbigny and Lafresnaye), 1838

Meaning of Name: Ochetorhynchus: Gr. okhetos= channel, conduit, pipe and rhunkhos= bill. ruficaudus: L. rufus red, ruddy and cauda= tail.

See more of the Family Furnariidae