The bay hornero or pale-billed hornero (''Furnarius torridus'') 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, Colombia, Peru, and possibly Eucador.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. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved May 31, 2023

Taxonomy and systematics

The bay hornero was originally described as a species but some early 20th century authors treated it as a subspecies of the pale-legged hornero (''F. leucopus''). Since the 1930s most taxonomists have again treated it as a species and early 2010s genetic data confirmed that treatment. However, even as late as 1973 one author considered it a color morph of the pale-legged.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, 2023Vaurie, C. (1973). Individual variation in ''Furnarius leucopus torridus'' (Furnariidae, Aves). American Museum Novitates 2515:1–11.https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/2722 The bay hornero 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 bay hornero is long and weighs about . It is a stout hornero with a long and nearly straight bill. The sexes' plumages are alike. Adults have a dull buffy 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 ...

. Their crown and nape are grayish brown. Their back, rump, uppertail and 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 ...

, and tail are chestnut brown ("bay"). Most of their wing is also chestnut brown, with a small area of pale rufous on the inner

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 ...

. Their throat is white with dark tawny brown sides. Their breast is dark tawny brown, their flanks buffy brown, their belly whitish, and their undertail coverts dusky with chestnut brown tips. Their iris is brown or reddish 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 ...

light horn brown with a darker base and culmen, 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 ...

whitish, cream, or pinkish gray, and their legs and feet cream or very light pink.Schulenberg, T. S. and M. G. Harvey (2020). Pale-billed Hornero (''Furnarius torridus''), 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.pabhor2.01 retrieved August 21, 2023

Distribution and habitat

The bay hornero is found in the western

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

along the rios Huallaga,

Ucayali The Ucayali River (, ) is the main headstream of the Amazon River. It rises about north of Lake Titicaca, in the Arequipa region of Peru and becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañón close to Nauta city. The city of Pucallpa is lo ...

, and Napo in Peru, and through extreme southern Colombia and western Brazil along the upper Amazon ( rio Solimões). A sight record in Ecuador leads 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 ...

to call it hypothetical in that country. The bay hornero primarily inhabits middle-aged river islands that undergo annual flooding, typically in stands of ''

Cecropia ''Cecropia'' is a Neotropical genus consisting of 61 recognized species with a highly distinctive lineage of dioecious trees. The genus consists of pioneer trees in the more or less humid parts of the Neotropics, with the majority of the speci ...

''. It also occurs on older islands and in '' várzea'' forest along the rivers. In Colombia most of the few records are grassy islands.

Behavior

Movement

The bay hornero is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The bay hornero's diet and foraging behavior are poorly known. It forages on the ground, usually in pairs, and usually under vegetation overhangs. It is assumed to feed 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 other terrestrial vertebrates.

Breeding

The bay hornero's nest is typical of its genus, "a mud dome with a side entrance" on a horizontal tree limb. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.

Vocalization

The bay hornero's song is "a long, descending, staccato series rather like that of Pale-legged ornero but with a distinctive closely spaced, ascending terminal component". It has also been described as a "descending, hurried series of loud, fluted notes, ending in a tremolo". Its calls include "an explosive ''keek'' or ''tseek''".

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 bay hornero as being of Least Concern. It has a fairly large range and a population of unknown size that is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered "uncommon to fairly common" in Peru.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1266868 bay hornero Riverine birds of Amazonia Birds of Peruvian Amazonia bay hornero bay hornero bay hornero Taxonomy articles created by Polbot