The buffy tuftedcheek or Lawrence's tuftedcheek (''Pseudocolaptes lawrencii'') is a

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Furnariidae. It is found in Costa Rica and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The buffy tuftedcheek and the Pacific tuftedcheek (''Pseudocolaptes johnsoni'') were previously considered subspecies of the streaked tuftedcheek (''P. boissonneautii''). The buffy tuftedcheek was then separated with the Pacific as a subspecies of it. Though some authors in the early twentieth century treated the Pacific as a species, major taxonomic systems did not begin treating the buffy and Pacific tuftedcheeks as separate species until the mid-2010s. 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 ...

and the Clements taxonomy were the last; they implemented the split in 2022.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, 2023HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip retrieved December 13, 2022Chesser, R. T., S. M. Billerman, K. J. Burns, C. Cicero, J. L. Dunn, B. E. Hernández-Baños, R. A. Jiménez, A. W. Kratter, N. A. Mason, P. C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen, Jr., and K. Winker. 2023. Check-list of North American Birds (online). American Ornithological Society. https://checklist.americanornithology.org/taxa/Clements, 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 The buffy tuftedcheek's alternative English name and it specific epithet commemorate the American amateur ornithologist

George Newbold Lawrence George Newbold Lawrence (October 20, 1806 – January 17, 1895) was an American businessman and amateur ornithologist. Early life Lawrence was born in the city of New York on October 20, 1806. From his youth, Lawrence was a lover of birds and s ...

. The buffy tuftedcheek 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 "unispec ...

Description

The buffy tuftedcheek is long and weighs about . The sexes' plumages are alike but the female has a significantly longer bill than the male. The species' most distinctive feature is its namesake pale golden tawny tuft of feathers that flare on the side of the neck. Adults have a buff-whitish supercilium and blackish brown lores and ear coverts. Their crown is blackish brown with many thin buff streaks, their hindcrown similar with wider streaks, and the rest of their back

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 ...

-brown with a faint blackish scallop pattern. Their rump, uppertail coverts, and tail are bright chestnut rufous. Their wings are blackish brown with pale rufous and ochraceous buff tips on the coverts that form bars when the wing is closed. Their throat is whitish with a golden-tawny tinge, their breast a blurry pattern of wide dull brown and pale buff streaks, their belly dull tawny-buff with faint darker mottling, their flanks rufescent brown, and their undertail coverts ochraceous to cinnamon. Their iris is dark brown, their

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates 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 ...

black to dark brown, their

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bon ...

usually paler than the maxilla with a darker center, and their legs and feet olive green to yellowish olive. Juveniles have a much shorter bill than adults and lack the streaks on the crown; they have a blackish brown scallop pattern on the throat and breast and more rufescent flanks and belly.del Hoyo, J., J. V. Remsen, Jr., G. M. Kirwan, N. Collar, and P. F. D. Boesman (2022). Buffy Tuftedcheek (''Pseudocolaptes lawrencii''), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman and N. D. Sly, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.buftuf1.01.1 retrieved August 19, 2023

Distribution and habitat

The buffy tuftedcheek is found from the central part of Costa Rica's Central Highlands south into western Panama as far as Veraguas Province. It inhabits humid montane evergreen forest, where it favors somewhat open tracts, the edges of denser tracts, and clearings with scattered trees. In elevation it ranges from to timberline at about .

Behavior

Movement

The buffy tuftedcheek is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The buffy tuftedcheek's diet is mostly a wide variety of

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

s but also includes small amphibians. It forages singly or in pairs and frequently joins mixed species feeding flocks. It forages by clambering along branches from the forest's mid level to the canopy. It does most of its foraging in epiphytes, among which it favors bromeliads. It also seeks prey in mosses and among clumps of dead leaves.

Breeding

The buffy tuftedcheek is believed to be monogamous. It nests between January and May in Costa Rica. It nests in a cavity in a tree, either natural or one made by a small woodpecker, which it lines with plant matter like brown tree fern scales. Only one nest has been extensively studied. At it the single egg and nestling were tended by one adult. The nestling period was at least 29 days.

Vocalization

The buffy tuftedcheek sings mainly in the breeding season, a "few well-spaced staccato notes followed by a liquid gurgling trill...''peek...peek...prrreeee-e-e-e''". It usually sings the phrase one time but occasionally repeats it several times. It calls throughout the year, usually in the morning while foraging, a "loud, metallic, staccato ''peek!'' or ''spik!''". The song is assumed to have a territorial function while the call is thought to be for keeping contact with a mate.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the buffy tuftedcheek as being of Least Concern. Though it has a limited range and its population size is not known, the latter is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered uncommon to fairly common in Costa Rica and rare in Panama. It occurs in several protected areas.