The brown trembler (''Cinclocerthia ruficauda'') 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 family Mimidae, the mockingbirds and thrashers. It is found on the islands of

Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Șaba or Șaba-Târg, the Romanian name for Shabo, a village in Ukraine * Saba, ...

St. Kitts Saint Kitts, officially Saint Christopher, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one ...

Nevis Nevis ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute the Saint Kitts and Nevis, Federation of Saint Kitts ...

Montserrat Montserrat ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, wit ...

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...

Dominica Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of t ...

and

St. Vincent Saint Vincent may refer to: People Saints * Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), a.k.a. Vincent the Deacon, deacon and martyr * Saint Vincenca, 3rd century Roman martyress, whose relics are in Blato, Croatia * Vincent, Orontius, and Victor (died 305 ...

in the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

of the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The taxonomy of genus ''Cinclocerthia'' is not fully resolved. The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology. It links basic and applied research and nurtures education and outreach activities. Specifically, the IOU organizes and funds global co ...

(IOC) recognizes the brown trembler and the grey trembler (''C. gutturalis''). It divides the brown trembler into four subspecies, the nominate ''C. r. ruficauda'', ''C. r. pavida'', ''C. r. tremula'', and ''C. r. tenebrosa''. However, there is significant

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

evidence that brown tremblers from Guadeloupe northwards may represent a separate species (''C. tremula'') from those on the other islands. Some authors consider ''tremula'' to be part of ''ruficauda''

Description

The nominate subspecies of brown trembler is long; males weigh and females . The species has a long, slightly downcurved bill, the female's longer than the male's. Adults are mostly shades of brown. Their crown is a deep grayish brown, the nape less gray, the back an olive brown, and the rump and tail a reddish brown. The face is blackish through the eye with grayish olive brown cheeks. The chin and throat are pale grayish buff that becomes browner on the breast and belly. The sides and flanks are cinnamon. The juvenile is similar with faint dusky spots on the breast. ''C. r. pavida'' is larger than the nominate but is otherwise similar. ''C. r. tenebrosa'' is also similar to the nominate, but its upperparts are darker and sootier and the breast more grayish. ''C. r. tremula'' is similar to ''tenebrosa'' but much larger.

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''C. r. pavida'' of the brown trembler is the most widely distributed; it is found in the northern Lesser Antilles from Saba south to Montserrat. ''C. r. tremula'' is restricted to Guadeloupe, the nominate ''C. r. ruficauda'' to Dominica, and ''C. r. tenebrosa'' to St. Vincent. The brown trembler mostly inhabits humid evergreen forest but is also found 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 ...

and plantations. In elevation it ranges from sea level to about .

Behavior

Tremblers derive their name from a typical behavior "in which the wings both are drooped and angled slightly away from the body...making very rapid vertical and lateral motions.

Feeding

The brown trembler forages on the ground, in the understory, and in the midstory. It tosses leaves with its bill and more typically probes

epiphyte An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

s, gaps between vines and trunks, and clusters of dead leaves. Its diet includes a wide variety of fruit,

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 small vertebrates.

Breeding

Little is known about the brown trembler's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

. It apparently breeds in March and April. The only documented nest was in a coconut palm, "cup-shaped and ... composed of rootlets, lined with finer rootlets and dead leaves".

Vocalization

The brown trembler's principal song is "a series of variable loud phrases

ranging Length measurement, distance measurement, or range measurement (ranging) all refer to the many ways in which length, distance, or range can be measured. The most commonly used approaches are the rulers, followed by transit-time methods and the ...

in quality from 'rather harsh, others rich and warbled, still others high and squeaky'" It also has "subsongs" delivered less frequently. A common call is "a nasal, rasping ''yeeeah'', often repeated many times".

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 brown trembler as being of Least Concern. However, its population size and trend have not been determined and "it is likely that further deforestation and conversion to plantations or other human settlement will

result A result (also called upshot) is the outcome or consequence of a sequence of actions or events. Possible results include gain, injury, value, and victory. Some types of results include the outcome of an action, the final value of a calculation ...

in a population decrease."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q901986 brown trembler Birds of Montserrat Birds of Dominica Birds of Guadeloupe Birds of Saint Kitts and Nevis Birds of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines brown trembler Taxonomy articles created by Polbot