The Peruvian seaside cinclodes or surf cinclodesClements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022 (''Cinclodes taczanowskii'') 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

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Peruvian seaside cinclodes and the Chilean seaside cinclodes (''C. nigrofumosus'') have on and off been considered separate species and

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, G. Del-Rio, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 31 May 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved May 31, 2023 Studies in the twenty-first century show that they are very weakly differentiated genetically. As of 2023 they are treated as

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 ...

, and the two are sister to the

dark-bellied cinclodes The dark-bellied cinclodes (''Cinclodes patagonicus'') is a species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Argentina and Chile. Taxonomy and systematics The dark-bellied cinclodes was formall ...

(''C. patagonicus''). The South American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

is seeking a proposal to consider merging them. The Peruvian seaside cinclodes is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

Description

The Peruvian seaside cinclodes is about long and weighs about . It is a large cinclodes with a straight bill. The sexes have the same plumages. Adults have an indistinct buffy brown

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 ...

on an otherwise brownish face. Their crown is dark sepia brown and their upperparts dark brown. Their wing

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 dusky brown with paler edges. Their

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

are dusky brown and most have cinnamon buff or pale rufous bases. Their secondaries have blackish-bordered rufous bases and dusky brown tips. Their

tertials Flight feathers (''Pennae volatus'') are the long, stiff, asymmetrically shaped, but symmetrically paired pennaceous feathers on the wings or tail of a bird; those on the wings are called remiges (), singular remex (), while those on the tai ...

are dusky brown with rufescent brown edges. Their tail is blackish brown; the outer three pairs of feathers have progressively more pale rufous on their tips. Their throat is dirty white with dusky spots, their breast brown with short pale streaks, and their belly plain brown.Their iris is brown, their bill black or brown, and their legs and feet dark gray-brown or black.Schulenberg, T. S. (2020). Surf Cinclodes (''Cinclodes taczanowskii''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.surcin1.01 retrieved September 4, 2023

Distribution and habitat

The Peruvian seaside cinclodes is found along the Peruvian coast from the

Department of Ancash Ancash (; ) is a department and region in western Peru. It is bordered by the departments of La Libertad on the north, Huánuco and Pasco on the east, Lima on the south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its capital is the city of Huaraz, a ...

south to the

Department of Tacna Tacna (; Aymara and Quechua: ''Taqna'') is the southernmost department and region in Peru. The Chilean Army occupied the present-day Tacna Department during the War of the Pacific from 1885 until 1929 when it was reincorporated into Peru. Geo ...

almost on the Chilean border, and on several nearshore islands. It inhabits the intertidal zone where it favors rocks though it will occasionally move onto adjacent sandy areas.

Behavior

Movement

The Peruvian seaside cinclodes is a year-round resident throughout its range and essentially never leaves the water's edge.

Feeding

The sister Peruvian and Chilean seaside cinclodes are the only passerines that forage at the ocean's surf line. The Peruvian seaside cinclodes forages singly or in pairs, and feeds on aquatic invertebrates, though full details are lacking. Its diet is known to include small crabs and other crustaceans, small bivalves and snails, isopods, and beetles.

Breeding

Only one nest of the Peruvian seaside cinclodes has been described. It was a cup of algae with a few plant fibers and feathers placed in a rock crevice. It was active in February.

Vocalization

The song of the Peruvian seaside cinclodes has been described as "a trill" and its call as "an abrupt ''chec''".Schulenberg, T. S., D. F. Stotz, D. F. Lane, J. P. O’Neill, and T. A. Parker III. 2007. Birds of Peru. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.

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 Peruvian seaside cinclodes as being of Least Concern. It has a limited range and an unknown population size that is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered fairly common and "probably is little affected by human activity".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1036980 Peruvian seaside cinclodes Birds of Peru Endemic birds of Peru Western South American coastal birds Peruvian seaside cinclodes Peruvian seaside cinclodes Taxonomy articles created by Polbot