The equatorial greytail (''Xenerpestes singularis'') is a

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

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

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The equatorial greytail 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 ...

. It shares genus ''Xenerpestes'' with the

double-banded greytail The double-banded greytail (''Xenerpestes minlosi'') is a species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama. Taxonomy and systematics The double-banded greytail has ...

(''X. minlosi'') and together they are

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 ...

to the orange-fronted plushcrown (''Metopothrix aurantiaca'').Remsen, Jr., J. V. (2020). Orange-fronted Plushcrown (''Metopothrix aurantiaca''), 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.orfplu2.01 retrieved November 8, 2023Schulenberg, T. S. (2020). Equatorial Graytail (''Xenerpestes singularis''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.equgra1.01 retrieved November 9, 2023

Description

The equatorial greytail is about long and weighs about . It is a tiny furnariid that resembles a

warbler Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous. Sylvioid warblers T ...

. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have buff and grayish grizzled lores and a thin buffy white

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 grayish face. Their forecrown is rufous with black streaks and their rear crown, back, rump, and tail are olive-gray. Their wings are dusky with gray-brown

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 ...

and thin medium brown edges to the flight feathers. Their underparts are creamy white with blurry gray streaks. Their iris is gray-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 ...

slate gray to 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 ...

creamy to pale gray, and their legs and feet olive-brown. Juveniles differ from adults by having gray bars rather than streaks on their underparts.

Distribution and habitat

The equatorial greytail is found in the foothills of the east side of the Andes from Ecuador's

Napo Province Napo () is a province in Ecuador. Its capital is Tena. The province contains the Napo River. The province is low developed without much industrial presence. The thick rainforest is home to many natives that remain isolated by preference, descend ...

south slightly into northern Peru. It inhabits the interior and edges of humid

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

. In elevation it ranges from in Ecuador and in Peru.

Behavior

Movement

The equatorial greytail is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The equatorial greytail feeds 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. It forages high in the forest's subcanopy and canopy. It forages singly, in pairs, and in small family groups and readily joins

mixed-species feeding flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These ar ...

s. It gleans prey from foliage live and dead, sometimes hanging upside down on the underside of leaves, and also gleans from twigs and small branches.

Breeding

The equatorial greytail's breeding season appears to start with nest building in January. The nest is a large ball of sticks suspended from a branch. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.

Vocalization

The equatorial greytail's song is "a long and dry, almost insect-like and somewhat reeling trill that lasts 5 or more seconds, 'tzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz' ". Its call is a dry "tsit".

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 equatorial greytail as Near Threatened. It is scarce and local in its somewhat limited range; its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. "Its habitats are under intense pressure from conversion to agriculture and cattle pasture, mining operations and logging, with widespread destruction caused by peasant farmers, and tea and coffee growers."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1269494 equatorial greytail Birds of the Ecuadorian Andes Birds of the Peruvian Andes equatorial greytail equatorial greytail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot