The ochre-cheeked spinetail (''Synallaxis scutata'') 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

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

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 28 September 2023. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved October 20, 2023

Taxonomy and systematics

The ochre-cheeked spinetail and two other spinetails have been placed by some authors in genus ''Poecilurus'' but there are insufficient plumage, behavioral, and genetic differences to support that treatment.Remsen, Jr., J. V. (2020). Ochre-cheeked Spinetail (''Synallaxis scutata''), 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.occspi1.01 retrieved November 20, 2023 The ochre-cheeked spinetail is not even closely related to the other two but is a

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 grey-bellied spinetail (''S. cinerascens'').Derryberry, 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 Beyond the confirmation that the ochre-cheeked spinetail belongs in genus ''Synallaxis'' its taxonomy is unsetted. The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology. It links basic and applied research and nurtures education and outreach activities. Specifically, the IOU organizes and funds global co ...

and

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

's ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. ...

'' assign it two subspecies, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In th ...

''S. s. scutata'' ( Sclater, PL, 1859) and ''S. s. whitii'' (Sclater, PL, 1881). The

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 202 ...

adds a third, ''S. s. teretiala'' (Owen, 1985) that the other two systems include within the nominate.HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip retrieved December 13, 2022Clements, J. F., P.C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved October 28, 2023 Remsen (2020) states that ''teretiala'' and a proposed subspecies ''neglecta'' are indistinguishable from the nominate. This article follows the two-subspecies model. Synallaxis scutata whitii Smit

Description

The ochre-cheeked spinetail is long and weighs . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a wide 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 ...

, blackish lores, a fuzzy dark brownish line behind the eye, and ochraceous ear

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 malar region. Their forehead has a blackish spot. Their crown and upper back are grayish brown and the rest of their back is dark rufous that narrows to the rump, replace by grayish brown. Their uppertail coverts are rufous. Their wings are mostly dark rufous with dark brownish lesser coverts and

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

tips. Their tail is rufous; the tips of the feathers have no barbs giving a spiny appearance. Their throat is white with a black crescent on its lower part. Their breast is pinkish brown to pale ochraceous buff that becomes more ochraceous by the undertail coverts; the belly is paler and has a white center. Their iris is dark chestnut to reddish brown or 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 to dark gray, 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 ...

gray to blue-gray (sometimes with a dark tip), and their legs and feet greenish gray to yellowish olive. Juveniles have faint dark scallops on the breast. Subspecies ''S. s. whitii'' has uniform brown upperparts with no rufous, with darker rufous wings and tail and deeper ochraceous face and underparts than the nominate.

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of the ochre-cheeked spinetail is found in eastern and central Brazil. Subspecies ''S. s. whitii'' is found in southern Brazil's

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – ) is one of the states of Brazil, the List of Brazilian states by area, third largest by area, located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible ...

state, southeastern Bolivia, extreme northwestern Paraguay, and northwestern Argentina in

Jujuy San Salvador de Jujuy (), commonly known as Jujuy and locally often referred to as San Salvador, is the capital and largest city of Jujuy Province in northwest Argentina. Also, it is the seat of the Doctor Manuel Belgrano Department. It lies near ...

and

Salta Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Salta Province, the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the List of cities in Argentina, 7th most-populous ...

provinces and perhaps as far south as

Catamarca Province Catamarca () is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. The province had a population of 429,556 as per the , and covers an area of 102,602 km2. Its literacy rate is 95.5%. Neighbouring provinces are (clockwise, f ...

. The species is also found in southeastern Peru and northwestern Bolivia; these individuals might belong to ''whitii'' or represent an undescribed subspecies. The ochre-cheeked spinetail generally inhabits the undergrowth and edges of semi-deciduous and deciduous forest; in Brazil the forest is found in ''

caatinga Caatinga () is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" comes from the Tupi word '' ka'atinga'', meaning "white forest" or "white vegetat ...

'' and ''

cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

'' ecoregions. In elevation it ranges from near sea level to .

Behavior

Movement

The ochre-cheeked spinetail is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The ochre-cheeked spinetail 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 typically forages in pairs and occasionally 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 most of its prey from the ground.

Breeding

The ochre-cheeked spinetail is thought to breed during the austral spring and summer or the local wet season. Eggs have been noted in eastern Brazil in April and nestlings have been seen in Argentina in November. Its nest is a mass of twigs, roots, and dead leaves that can be twice as long as it is wide; a horizontal tube leads to the egg chamber. It is placed on the ground where it resembles a pile of debris. The clutch size is two to three eggs. The incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.

Vocalization

The ochre-cheeked spinetail's song is an "extr. high, thin 'fweeet puh-wit', 1st part upslurred, 2nd note lower pitched than 1st and 3rd". It is "constantly repeated at 1-sec. intervals".

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 ochre-cheeked spinetail as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range and an unknown population size that is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered uncommon to locally fairly common and occurs in a few protected areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1263443

ochre-cheeked spinetail The ochre-cheeked spinetail (''Synallaxis scutata'') is a species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family (biology), family Furnariidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Peru.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. ...

Birds of the Gran Chaco Birds of Bolivia Birds of Brazil

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot