The Chilean mockingbird (''Mimus thenca''), locally known as ''tenca'', is a species of

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 family Mimidae. It primarily inhabits

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

's northern half, though there are sightings in Argentina.

Taxonomy and systematics

The Chilean mockingbird 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 Chilean mockingbird is long and weighs . The male is somewhat larger than the female. Adults have a wide whitish

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, neck, and back are brownish gray with darker streaks and their rump browner. The wings and tail are blackish. The wings show two narrow bars when folded. The outermost tail feathers have white edges and most of the others have white tips. The throat is whitish, the chest brownish gray, the belly dirty white, and the flanks buffy with blackish streaks. The juvenile is similar but more buffy below with more streaks.Cody, M. L. (2020). Chilean Mockingbird (''Mimus thenca''), 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.chimoc1.01 retrieved July 21, 2021

Distribution and habitat

The Chilean mockingbird is found in Chile from Copiapó Province in the Atacama Region south to Los Lagos,

Puerto Montt Puerto Montt (Mapuche: Meli Pulli) is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncaví Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region, 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago. The commune ...

, and

Chiloé Island Chiloé Island ( es, Isla de Chiloé, , ) also known as Greater Island of Chiloé (''Isla Grande de Chiloé''), is the largest island of the Chiloé Archipelago off the west coast of Chile, in the Pacific Ocean. The island is located in southern ...

. A small population also exists in Neuquén Province, Argentina. The Chilean mockingbird inhabits a wide variety of biomes, most of which are characterized by scrub, shrubs, or widely spaced trees. Examples include succulent coastal scrub, inland savanna bushland, and evergreen

Chilean matorral The Chilean Matorral (NT1201) is a terrestrial ecoregion of central Chile, located on the west coast of South America. It is in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome, part of the Neotropical realm. Matorral is typically characte ...

. It also occurs at the edges of low relict woodland patches such as those in Bosque de Fray Jorge National Park and in disturbed habitats, though only rarely in urban areas. It shuns ''

Nothofagus ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gu ...

'' and '' Cryptocarya'' woodlands in the south and plantations of introduced pines in central Chile. In elevation it ranges from sea level to .

Behavior

Feeding

The Chilean mockingbird forages mainly on the ground, turning over leaf litter and digging under fallen branches and around plant stems. It also hunts in vegetation up to above ground. It is omnivorous; it has been documented feeding on insects, wild and cultivated fruits, nectar, and a small lizard.

Breeding

The Chilean mockingbird nests mainly in October and November. They are territorial, probably throughout the year. Their nest is a cup made of twigs lined with moss or wool, placed low in vegetion such as cacti and thorny bushes. The clutch size is two to four. The nest is often parasitized by

shiny cowbird The shiny cowbird (''Molothrus bonariensis'') is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds in most of South America except for dense forests and areas of high altitude such as mountains. Since 1900 the shiny cowbird's range h ...

s (''Molothrus bonariensis'').

Vocalization

The Chilean mockingbird sings year round, "a series of sweet, variable notes and phrases". It is an "excellent mimic of other bird species."

Status

The IUCN has assessed the Chilean mockingbird as being of Least Concern. Though it has a somewhat restricted range, it is common within it and there are no known threats to its population.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2668570 Chilean mockingbird Birds of Chile Chilean mockingbird Taxonomy articles created by Polbot