The Chilean seaside cinclodes (''Cinclodes nigrofumosus'') 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 Furnariidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to rocky shorelines in

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 ...

. Some authorities include the

Peruvian seaside cinclodes The Peruvian seaside cinclodes or surf cinclodes (''Cinclodes taczanowskii'') is a species of bird in the family Furnariidae. It is endemic to rocky shorelines in Peru. It is often considered a subspecies In biological classification, sub ...

as a subspecies while others list it as a separate species. The ranges of the two do not overlap.

Description

The Chilean seaside cinclodes grows to a length of about . The upper parts are mainly a dark sooty brown, with a narrow whitish superciliary stripe and pale tips to the outer tail feathers. The wings have a rufous-buff bar that is chiefly visible in flight. The chin, throat and sides of the neck are white while the breast and belly are brown, streaked with white. The beak is charcoal grey and slightly curved and the rather short legs are dark grey.

Distribution and habitat

This bird is

to Chile where it lives on the coast, typically on rocky shores with boulders and tidepools. Its range extends from

Arica Arica ( ; ) is a commune and a port city with a population of 222,619 in the Arica Province of northern Chile's Arica y Parinacota Region. It is Chile's northernmost city, being located only south of the border with Peru. The city is the cap ...

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and Cau-Cau ...

Ecology

Chilean seaside cinclodes bob their tail as they walk. They have a loud trilling song, often uttered from the top of a boulder, and often flare their wings as they sing. They forage singly or in pairs, searching along the foreshore for the small

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

s and other

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s on which they feed, often hunting in surf-exposed places. Breeding takes place in August and September. The nest is built in a rock crevice or in a hole excavated in an earth bank and is formed out of grasses, with two to four white eggs being laid.

Status

The Chilean seaside cinclodes has a very wide range and is described as common. The population trend seems to be steady, and the total population is large. No particular threats have been identified and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natur ...

(IUCN) has assessed the bird's conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. Th ...

References

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1269208 Chilean seaside cinclodes Birds of Chile Endemic birds of Chile Western South American coastal birds Chilean seaside cinclodes Taxa named by Alcide d'Orbigny Taxa named by Frédéric de Lafresnaye Taxonomy articles created by Polbot