The flammulated treehunter (''Thripadectes flammulatus'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Furnariidae. It is found in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The flammulated treehunter is a

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

of the uniform treehunter (''T. ignobilis'') and Peruvian treehunter (''T. scrutator'').Derryberry, E. P., S. Claramunt, G. Derryberry, R. T. Chesser, J. Cracraft, A. Aleixo, J. Pérez-Emán, J. V. Remsen, Jr., and R. T. Brumfield. (2011). Lineage diversification and morphological evolution in a large-scale continental radiation: the Neotropical ovenbirds and woodcreepers (Aves: Furnariidae). Evolution 65(10):2973–2986. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01374.x It has two subspecies, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In th ...

''T. f. flammulatus'' ( Eyton, 1849) and ''T. f. bricenoi'' ( Berlepsch, 1907).

Description

The flammulated treehunter is long and weighs . It is the largest and most strikingly patterned member of its genus. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a blackish face and crown with sharp tawny-buff streaks that are rather golden on the crown. Their lores are speckled with blackish and golden buff. Their back is browner than the face and crown, with its blackish only along the feather shafts, and it blends to the rich medium brown rump. Their uppertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

are dark reddish brown. Their wing coverts are more rufescent than the back and with narrower streaks, their flight feathers dark rufescent brown, and their tail dull chestnut-brown. Their throat, breast, and upper belly are streaked with blackish and golden buff that fade to rich brown on the lower belly and flanks. Their undertail coverts are streaked with dark rufous-brown and blackish. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their bill black, and their legs and feet blackish to gray-brown. Juveniles are less distinctly streaked than adults. Subspecies ''T. f. bricenoi'' is overall paler than the nominate, with wider and blacker streaks on the upperwing coverts, an almost uniform buff throat, olive-brown instead of black streaks on the underparts, and ochraceous undertail coverts.Remsen, Jr., J. V. and E. de Juana (2020). Flammulated Treehunter (''Thripadectes flammulatus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.flatre1.01 retrieved September 5, 2023

Distribution and habitat

The flammulated treehunter has a

disjunct distribution In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...

. The nominate subspecies is found in the Andes of southwestern Venezuela, Colombia's

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...

, intermittently in all three

Colombian Andes The Andean region, located in central Colombia, is the most populated natural region of Colombia. With many mountains, the Andes contain most of the country's urban centers.Mérida state. The species inhabits montane

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zo ...

and temperate forest and favors thickets of ''

Chusquea ''Chusquea'' is a genus of evergreen bamboos in the grass family. Most of them are native to mountain habitats in Latin America, from Mexico to southern Chile and Argentina. They are sometimes referred to as South American mountain bamboos. Unl ...

'' bamboo. In elevation it mostly ranges between but locally occurs as low as in western Colombia. NML-VZ D1447 NML-VZ D1447a Anabates flammulatus

Behavior

Movement

The flammulated treehunter is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The flammulated treehunter feeds on

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s and is suspected to also eat small vertebrates. It usually forages singly and rarely to occasionally joins

mixed-species feeding flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These ar ...

s. It mostly forages in dense undergrowth, where it gleans prey from branches, moss, and debris.

Breeding

The flammulated treehunter's breeding season has not been fully defined but includes at least June to October. It excavates a tunnel in an earthen bank and makes a nest of rootlets, bamboo fibers, and other plant material in a chamber at its end. The two known clutches were each of two eggs. The incubation period and time to fledging are not known. Both parents provision nestlings.

Vocalization

The flammulated treehunter's song is "a series of grating notes that start as a stutter, then accelerates and becomes louder". Its contact call is "an emphatic sharp 'check' ".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the flammulated treehunter as being of Least Concern. It has a large range and an unknown population size that is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered generally uncommon; it occurs in two protected areas in Ecuador.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1266973 flammulated treehunter Birds of the Colombian Andes Birds of the Ecuadorian Andes Birds of the Venezuelan Andes Birds of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta flammulated treehunter flammulated treehunter Taxonomy articles created by Polbot