Cinereous-breasted Spinetail
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The cinereous-breasted spinetail (''Synallaxis hypospodia'') 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
Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
,
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
,
Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
, and
Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
.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 26 November 2023. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved November 27, 2023


Taxonomy and systematics

The cinereous-breasted spinetail was previously treated as a subspecies of Spix's spinetail (''S. spixi''); the two are now considered
sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...
.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 26 November 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved November 27, 2023Derryberry, E. P., S. Claramunt, G. Derryberry, R. T. Chesser, J. Cracraft, A. Aleixo, J. Pérez-Emán, J. V. Remsen, Jr., and R. T. Brumfield. (2011). Lineage diversification and morphological evolution in a large-scale continental radiation: the Neotropical ovenbirds and woodcreepers (Aves: Furnariidae). Evolution 65(10):2973–2986. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01374.x The cinereous-breasted spinetail 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 cinereous-breasted spinetail is long and weighs . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a faint gray
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 ...
on an otherwise gray-brown face. Their forecrown is dark gray-brown, their crown and nape chestnut-rufous, and their back, rump and uppertail
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 ...
dark brown. Their wing coverts are chestnut-rufous and their flight feathers dark brown with rufescent edges. Their tail is a darker brown than the back; it is graduated and the feathers have rounded tips. Their chin and throat are mostly whitish; the lower throat feathers are blackish with whitish edges. Their breast is brownish gray ("cinereous" means ash-colored), their belly whitish, and their flanks and undertail coverts brownish. Their iris is 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 ...
black, 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 ...
silvery gray to grayish horn, and their legs and feet olive or grayish olive to brownish yellow. Juveniles have a gray-brown crown, mostly ochraceous clay-brown underparts, and a less distinct throat patch than the nominate.Remsen, Jr., J. V. (2020). Cinereous-breasted Spinetail (''Synallaxis hypospodia''), 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.cibspi1.01 retrieved December 4, 2023


Distribution and habitat

The cinereous-breasted spinetail has a
disjunct distribution In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...
. One population is found in far eastern Peru's
Department of Madre de Dios Madre de Dios (, ) is a department and region in southeastern Peru, bordering Brazil, Bolivia and the Peruvian departments of Puno, Cusco and Ucayali, in the Amazon Basin. Its capital is the city of Puerto Maldonado. It is also the third large ...
, northern and eastern Bolivia, and Brazil's 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 ...
. Another is found from
Ceará Ceará (, ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It is the List of Brazilian states by population, eighth-largest Brazilian State by ...
and
Alagoas Alagoas () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco (N and NW); Sergipe (S); Bahia (SW); and the Atlantic Ocean (E). Its capital is ...
in northeastern Brazil southwest through
Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul ( ) is one of Federative units of Brazil, Brazil's 27 federal units, located in the southern part of the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West Region, bordering five Brazilian states: Mato Grosso (to the north), Goiás and ...
slightly into southeastern Bolivia and northeastern Paraguay. There are also records at scattered locations throughout central Peru, but some of these are suspected to be misidentifications. The cinereous-breasted spinetail inhabits a variety of open landscapes including seasonally wet grassland, scrublands, campina, and savannah. Within them it favors areas near water. In elevation it ranges from near sea level to about .


Behavior


Movement

The cinereous-breasted spinetail is a year-round resident throughout its range.


Feeding

The diet and foraging behavior of the cinereous-breasted spinetail are not well known. It is thought 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 that it gleans from foliage and small branches, staying about above the ground. It is usually seen in pairs.


Breeding

Nothing is known about the breeding biology of the cinereous-breasted spinetail.


Vocalization

Remsen describes the cinereous-breasted spinetail's principal vocalization as "a hurried and loud chatter on same pitch, 'chéw, chew-chee-chee-chee-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-eu', accelerating at end". As described by vanPerlo, it is a "high, sharp 'tut-Drrrrrrruh' (last part staccato and slightly descending)".


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 cinereous-breasted spinetail as being of Least Concern. It has a large range; its population size is not known but is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered locally common to fairly common but is poorly known.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1269078 cinereous-breasted spinetail Birds of the Bolivian Amazon Birds of Brazil cinereous-breasted spinetail cinereous-breasted spinetail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot