Streak-backed Canastero (Asthenes wyatti)

Identification & Behavior: ~17 cm (6.6 in). The Streak-backed Canastero has a brown back with broad dusky streaks. The crown is also streaked with dusky. The underparts are tawny or rufous-brown and unmarked. It has an orange chin patch. The tail is mostly brown with rufous outer tail feathers. It forages in bunch grass with scattered shrubs and boulders.  It is very similar to the Puna Canastero but is distinguished by smaller size, and by having rufous outer tail feathers. These two canasteros replace each other geographically.

Status: The Streak-backed Canastero is generally fairly common but appears to be patchily distributed. It is known to range at elevations of 3500-4600 m. The Streak-backed Canastero also occurs in Co, Ec, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Canastero de Dorso Rayado.

Sub-species: Streak-backed Canastero (Asthenes wyatti graminicola), P. L. Sclater, 1874.

Meaning of Name: Asthenes: Gr. a= a negative prefix and sthenos= power. asthenes= insignificant, powerless. wyatti: In honor of Claude Wilmott Wyatt (1842-1900) English ornithologist, collector in Colombia 1870.

See more of the Family Furnariidae