The tepui foliage-gleaner (''Syndactyla roraimae''), also known as the white-throated foliage-gleaner, 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
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
,
Guyana
Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...
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 tepui foliage-gleaner was originally described in genus ''
Philydor'' and then placed in genus ''
Automolus
''Automolus'' is a genus of bird in the ovenbird family Furnariidae.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Automolus'' was introduced in 1853 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach to accommodate the taxon ''Sphenura sulphurascens'' Hinrich Lichtenstein, L ...
''. Publications in 2008 and 2011 showed that it belonged in ''Syndactyla''.
[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.]
The tepui foliage-gleaner has these four subspecies:
[
*''S. r. paraquensis'' ( Phelps, WH & Phelps, WH Jr, 1947)
*''S. r. duidae'' ( Chapman, 1939)
*''S. r. roraimae'' (]Hellmayr
Carl Eduard Hellmayr (29 January 1878 – 24 February 1944) was an Austrian ornithologist.
Biography
Hellmayr was born in Vienna and studied at the University of Vienna, although he did not complete his degree. After his studies he worked in Vie ...
, 1917)
*''S. r. urutani'' (Phelps, WH Jr & Dickerman, 1980)
Description
The tepui foliage-gleaner is about long and weighs . It is the smallest member of its genus and has the most striking facial pattern. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. ...
''S. r. roraimae'' have a white 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 ...
that contrasts with their blackish-brown face. Their crown is dark grayish brown, their back rich dark rufescent brown, and their rump and 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 ...
chestnut-rufous. Their tail is chestnut-rufous. Their wing coverts are mostly rich dark rufescent brown, their primary
Primary or primaries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Primary (band), from Australia
* Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea
* Primary Music, Israeli record label
Work ...
coverts darker brown, and their flight feathers a more rufescent brown. Their throat and malar area are white, their breast and belly medium brown, and their flanks and undertail coverts darker brown. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their maxilla
In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...
black, their 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 ...
highly variable from pinkish gray to black, and their legs and feet olive-yellow to greenish gray. Juveniles have an ochraeous supercilium, and more rufous underparts than adults, with dusky tips on the breast and belly feathers.[Remsen, Jr., J. V. (2020). White-throated Foliage-gleaner (''Syndactyla roraimae''), 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.wtfgle1.01 retrieved August 30, 2023][
]
Distribution and habitat
The tepui foliage-gleaner is found in the tepui
A tepui , or tepuy (), is a member of a family of table-top mountains or mesas found in northern South America, especially in Venezuela, western Guyana, and northern Brazil. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the ...
region where eastern Venezuela, western Guyana, and northwestern Brazil meet. The subspecies' ranges are disjunct and they are found thus:[
*''S. r. paraquensis'': Cerro Paraque in south-central Venezuela's Amazonas state
*''S. r. duidae'': several tepuis in Venezuela's Amazonas state, and Cerro de la Neblina straddling the Venezuela/Brazil border
*''S. r. roraimae'': ]Mount Roraima
Mount Roraima (; ) is the highest of the Pacaraima chain of tepuis (table-top mountain) or plateaux in South America. It is located at the junction of Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. A characteristic large flat-topped mountain surrounded by cliff ...
straddling the junction of Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil, and other tepuis in southeastern Venezuela and western Guyana
*''S. r. urutani'': several tepuis in Venezuela's Bolívar state
The tepui foliage-gleaner 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 ...
, wind-stunted woodland, and the transition zone between them. In elevation it mostly ranges between .[
]
Behavior
Movement
The tepui foliage-gleaner is a year-round resident throughout its range.[
]
Feeding
The tepui foliage-gleaner feeds on a variety of 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 such as Coleoptera
Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...
and Orthoptera
Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – gras ...
. It forages singly, in pairs, or in small family groups and often 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 the forest's understorey but will go up to the mid-storey. It typically stays low in the undergrowth but also seeks prey while clambering about in vine tangles and hitching along branches and up trunks. It gleans and probes for it prey among live and dead leaves, moss, and on branches. It occasionally hangs upside down while foraging.[
]
Breeding
The tepui foliage-gleaner's breeding season in Guyana apparently ends in March or April, but nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.[
]
Vocalization
The tepui foliage-gleaner's song is "a long accelerating series of very harsh guttural 'jjza' notes, rising in pitch, usually preceded by a few single short notes". Its call is "a short, harsh 'chek' or 'tzik' ".[
]
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 tepui foliage-gleaner as being of Least Concern. It has a restricted range and an unknown population size, but the latter is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified.[ It is considered uncommon to locally common and occurs in one Venezuelan national park.][
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1267130
tepui foliage-gleaner
Birds of the Tepuis
tepui foliage-gleaner
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot