White-winged Tapaculo (Scytalopus Krabbei)

Identification & Behavior: The adult male White-winged Tapaculo is mostly mouse-gray with a somewhat dusky loral area. The throat and breast are lighter gray. The female is also mouse-gray with a brown-tinged back. Both sexes have rufous barred with black on the flanks, vent, and rump. A distinctive field mark is a small white wing patch formed by white outer webs of the outer 2 or 3 greater primary coverts, which differentiate it from all other Tapaculos except for some males of the allopatric Loja Tapaculo. It forages in the wet shrub of upper montane forests. 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 White-winged Tapaculo is common to fairly common at appropriate habitat. It is known from 5 localities in 3 widely separated areas in the Central Andes of north-central Peru including Cordillera Colán in Amazonas, Cerro Patricia in northern San Martín, and central Huánuco at Bosque Unchog. The White-winged Tapaculo has been recorded at elevations ranging from 2,775 to 3,500 m, but primarily from 2,900 to 3,100 m. Endemic.

Name in Spanish: Tapaculo de Ala Blanca.

Sub-species: White-winged Tapaculo (Scytalopus Krabbei), Krabbe et al., 2020. See below.

Meaning of Name: Scytalopus: Gr. skutale or skutalon= stick, cudgel and pous, podos= foot. krabbei: In honor of Danish ornithologist Niels Krabbe.

Got to the Family Rhinocryptidae