Order: Passeriformes | Family: Rhinocryptidae | IUCN Status: Least Concern
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Age: Adult | Sex: Male (left), Female (right) | Art Work: Jon Fjeldsa
Age: Adult | Sex: Male, Junin | Art Work: Jon Fjeldsa
Identification & Behavior: The male Jalca Tapaculo is overall mouse-gray. It has dusky-gray around the base of the bill, loral area and eye. It has a variable faint to moderately pronounced pale supercilium. The rump, lower flanks, and tail are brown with distinct cinnamon bars or vermiculations. The female is similar to adult males with the most notable difference being overall browner. A female lower half, including the back, wings, flanks, vent, and rump are reddish brown barred with black. Due to the similarity and secretive habits among tapaculos, positive identification by appearance in the field is often impossible. Tapaculos’ loud and stereotyped voices constitute the safest way to identify them to the species level.
Status: The Jalca Tapaculo is known from 2 geographically separate populations. The northern population is known from Huánuco and Pasco. The southern population is found in Junín. It has been recorded at elevations of 3,400–4,200 m in remaining patches of elfin forest, rocky terrain, low scrubs, and tall bunchgrass. Endemic.
Name in Spanish: Tapaculo de Jalca.
Sub-species: Jalca Tapaculo (Scytalopus frankeae), Krabbe et. Al., 2020. See below.
Meaning of Name: Scytalopus: Gr. skutale or skutalon= stick, cudgel and pous, podos= foot. frankeae: In honor of Peruvian ornithologist Irma Franke.
Distribution Map
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Voice
References:
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- Information for this account was based on: Untangling cryptic diversity in the High Andes: Revision of the Scytalopus [magellanicus] complex (Rhinocryptidae) in Peru reveals three new species. Niels K Krabbe, Thomas S Schulenberg, Peter A Hosner, Kenneth V Rosenberg, Tristan J Davis, Gary H Rosenberg, Daniel F Lane, Michael J Andersen, Mark B Robbins, Carlos Daniel Cadena, Thomas Valqui, Jessie F Salter, Andrew J Spencer, Fernando Angulo, Jon Fjeldså. The Auk, Volume 137, Issue 2, 1 April 2020.