The eye-ringed thistletail (''Asthenes palpebralis'') 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

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to central

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 eye-ringed thistletail was long treated as a subspecies of the white-chinned thistletail (then ''Schizoeaca fuliginosa'', now ''Asthenes fuliginosa'') but was eventually separated as a species. They and several other species were in genus ''Schizoeaca'' but genetic data showed that the genus is embedded within ''Asthenes''.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 28 September 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved October 20, 2023Lloyd, H. (2020). Eye-ringed Thistletail (''Asthenes palpebralis''), 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.eyrthi1.01 retrieved November 7, 2023 The eye-ringed thistletail 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 eye-ringed thistletail is long and weighs . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a wide white eyering and dark brown lores on an otherwise chestnut-brown face. Their crown, back, rump, and wings are a darker chestnut-brown. Their tail is a more rufescent brown than the back; it is long and deeply forked with few barbs at the feather ends that give a ragged appearance. Their chin has a rusty or orange-rufous patch. Their throat and the rest of their underparts are gray with a paler belly and brownish-tinged flanks. Their iris is light gray to chestnut, their maxilla 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 ...

black or gray, and their legs and feet gray to blue-gray. Juveniles do not have the rusty chin; their belly is paler than adults' and their flanks brower.

Distribution and habitat

The eye-ringed thistletail is found only in the Andes of Peru's Department of Junín. It inhabits the narrow ecotone of the upper edges of cloudforest and the elfin forest above it. Often the understory is dense with '' Chusquea'' bamboo. In elevation it is found between .

Behavior

Movement

The eye-ringed thistletail is believed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The eye-ringed thistletail's diet and foraging behavior are not known in detail. It is assumed to feed mostly 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 gleaned in the understory from foliage, branches, and moss. It is usually seen singly or in pairs.

Breeding

Nothing is known about the eye-ringed thistletail's breeding biology.

Vocalization

The eye-ringed thistletail is quite vocal, with both members of a pair singing. Its song is "a long, slightly undulating or accelerating dry chatter or trill, which rises until near the end when it falls sharply". Its call is "a sharp, rising ''peee'' or ''weee''".

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 eye-ringed thistletail as being of Least Concern. It has a small range and an unknown population size that is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. "Land-use practises such as burning, grazing, and the conversion/clearance of paramo grasslands and forest patches for small-scale agriculture has greatly reduced the total surface extent of the linear Andean tree-line ecotone nd theeffects of habitat loss on the tree-line bird community have not yet been studied quantitatively."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1269899 eye-ringed thistletail Birds of the Peruvian Andes Endemic birds of Peru eye-ringed thistletail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot