The striped treehunter (''Thripadectes holostictus'') 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

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

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 striped treehunter shares genus ''

Thripadectes ''Thripadectes'' is a genus of Neotropical birds in the ovenbird family (biology), family Furnariidae. Taxonomy The genus was established by Philip Sclater in 1862 with the flammulated treehunter as the type species. The name ''Thripadectes'' is ...

'' with six other treehunters. It has these three subspecies: *''T. h. holostictus'' ( Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1876) *''T. h. moderatus'' Zimmer, JT, 1935 *''T. h. striatidorsus'' ( Berlepsch &

Taczanowski Taczanowski (Polish feminine: Taczanowska; plural: Taczanowscy) is the surname of a Polish szlachta (nobility) family from Poznań bearing the Jastrzębiec coat of arms and the motto: ''Plus penser que dire''. They took their name from their ...

, 1884) However, the subspecies' size and plumage differences may prove to be clinal as more data become available. If true, the division into subspecies might not be warranted.Remsen, Jr., J. V. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Striped Treehunter (''Thripadectes holostictus''), 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.strtre1.01 retrieved September 6, 2023 Striped Treehunter Tail Shot

Description

The striped treehunter is long and weighs . It is a bulky, dark

furnariid Ovenbirds or furnariids are a large family of small suboscine passerine birds found from Mexico and Central to southern South America. They form the family Furnariidae. This is a large family containing around 321 species and 71 genera. The ove ...

with a thrush-like shape. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies ''T. h. holostictus'' have a mostly blackish-brown face with buff streaks, some of which merge to form a

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...

. Their lores are grizzled blackish brown and buff. Their crown is blackish brown with strong buff streaks. Their back is dark brown with buff streaks and their rump dull dark brown that blends to reddish brown 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 ...

. Their wings are rich brown and their tail dark chestnut-brown. Their throat is tawny-buff with dark feather borders that give a streaked appearance that extends onto the upper breast. The rest of their breast is medium brown with pale buff streaks, their belly similar to the lower breast but becomes unstreaked by its bottom, their flanks darker and more

rufescent Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish-red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a dia ...

, and their undertail coverts darker than the belly with a reddish brown tinge. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their bill black with sometimes a lighter base to the

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

, and their legs and feet olive-brown to greenish gray. Juveniles have narrower streaks on the upperparts than adults and a mottled, rather than streaked, belly. Subspecies ''T. h. striatidorsus'' has slightly more reddish wings, more rufescent flanks, and browner edges to the throat feathers than the nominate. ''T. h. moderatus'' has more rufescent underparts with narrower streaks than the nominate; the streaks have a rufescent tinge and do not extend as far. The edges of its throat feathers are more olive than sooty.

Distribution and habitat

The striped treehunter has a somewhat

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 from the Andes of western Venezuela through Colombia's

Eastern Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

and Central Andes and eastern Ecuador into Peru as far as the

Department of La Libertad La Libertad (; in English language, English: ''The Liberty'') is a Regions of Peru, department and Regional Government of La Libertad, region in northwestern Peru. Formerly it was known as the Department of La Libertad ('). It is bordered by the L ...

. Subspecies ''T. h. striatidorsus'' is found from

Cauca Department Cauca Department (, ) is a department of Southwestern Colombia. Located in the southwestern part of the country, facing the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Valle del Cauca Department to the north, Tolima Department to the northeast, Huila De ...

in Colombia's Western Andes south into western Ecuador as far as

Chimborazo Province Chimborazo () is a Provinces of Ecuador, province in the central Ecuadorian Andes. It is a home to a section of Sangay National Park. The capital is Riobamba. The province contains Chimborazo (volcano), Chimborazo (6,267 m), Ecuador's highest mou ...

. ''T. h. moderatus'' is found in the Andes from the

Department of Huánuco Huánuco () is a Political division of Peru, department and region in central Peru. It is bordered by the La Libertad Region, La Libertad, San Martín Region, San Martín, Loreto Region, Loreto and Ucayali Region, Ucayali regions in the north, t ...

in Peru south and east into central Bolivia. The striped treehunter 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 ...

in the subtropical zone and highly 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, though it also occurs locally in

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

. It tends to stay in the undergrowth. In elevation it mostly ranges from . In Colombia it occurs as low as and as high as . In Ecuador it occurs as high as .

Behavior

Movement

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

Feeding

The striped treehunter's diet is mostly

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 may also include small vertebrates. It forages in dense undergrowth, usually by itself, and only 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 gleans and probes for its prey in dead leaves and debris in the forest understory, usually within about of the ground. It might specialize in hunting in dead leaves.

Breeding

The striped treehunter's breeding season has not been fully defined but spans from at least August to November. It excavates a tunnel up to about long in an earthen bank and builds a cup nest of rootlets in the chamber at its end. The clutch size is two or three eggs. The incubation period is 14 to 17 days and fledging occurs 20 to 23 days after hatch. No details of parental care are known.

Vocalization

The striped treehunter's song is "a fast series of nasal chattering notes, slightly descending and decelerating". Its call is a sharp "kwi-di-dik".

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 striped treehunter as being of Least Concern. It has a large range, and though its population size is not known it is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered uncommon to locally fairly common and occurs in several protected areas.