Rufous-browed Peppershrike

The rufous-browed peppershrike (''Cyclarhis gujanensis'') is a passerine bird in the vireo family. It is widespread and often common in woodland, forest edge, and cultivation with some tall trees from Mexico and Trinidad south to Argentina and Uruguay.

Taxonomy

The rufous-browed peppershrike was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it in the genus ''Tanagra'' and coined the binomial name ''Tanagra gujanensis''. The specific epithet is derived from the type locality, the Guianas. Gmelin based his account on "Le verderoux" from French Guiana that had been described in 1778 by the French polymath Comte de Buffon in his multivolume ''Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux''. The rufous-browed peppershrike is now placed with the black-billed peppershrike in the genus '' Cyclarhis'' that was introduced in 1824 by William Swainson.

Twenty two subspecies are recognised:

* ''C. g. septentrionalis'' Phillips, AR, 1991 – east Mexico
* ''C. g. flaviventris'' Lafresnaye, 1842 – southeast Mexico (except Yucatán Peninsula), Guatemala and north Honduras
* ''C. g. yucatanensis'' Ridgway, 1887 – Yucatán Peninsula (southeast Mexico)
* ''C. g. insularis'' Ridgway, 1885 – Cozumel (off southeast Mexico)
* ''C. g. nicaraguae'' Miller, W & Griscom, 1925 – south Mexico to Nicaragua
* ''C. g. subflavescens'' Cabanis, 1861 – Costa Rica and west Panama
* ''C. g. perrygoi'' Wetmore, 1950 – central west Panama
* ''C. g. flavens'' Wetmore, 1950 – east Panama
* ''C. g. coibae'' Hartert, EJO, 1901 – Coiba (off southwest Panama)
* ''C. g. cantica'' Bangs, 1898 – north, central Colombia
* ''C. g. flavipectus'' Sclater, PL, 1859 – northeast Venezuela and Trinidad
* ''C. g. parva'' Chapman, 1917 – northeast Colombia and north Venezuela
* ''C. g. gujanensis'' ( Gmelin, JF, 1789) – east Colombia and south Venezuela through the Guianas to northeast, central Brazil and east Peru
* ''C. g. cearensis'' Baird, SF, 1866 – east Brazil
* ''C. g. ochrocephala'' Tschudi, 1845 – southeast Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and northeast Argentina
* ''C. g. viridis'' (Vieillot, 1822) – Paraguay and north Argentina
* ''C. g. virenticeps'' Sclater, PL, 1860 – west Ecuador and northwest Peru
* ''C. g. contrerasi'' Taczanowski, 1879 – southeast Ecuador and north Peru
* ''C. g. saturata'' Zimmer, JT, 1925 – central Peru
* ''C. g. pax'' Bond, J & Meyer de Schauensee, 1942 – central east Bolivia
* ''C. g. dorsalis'' Zimmer, JT, 1942 – central Bolivia
* ''C. g. tarijae'' Bond, J & Meyer de Schauensee, 1942 – southeast Bolivia and northwest Argentina

Description

The adult rufous-browed peppershrike is approximately long and weighs . It is bull-headed with a thick, somewhat shrike-like bill, which typically is blackish below and pinkish-grey above. The head is grey with a strong rufous eyebrow. The crown is often tinged with brown. The upperparts are green, and the yellow throat and breast shade into a white belly. The subspecies ''ochrocephala'' from the south-eastern part of its range has a shorter rufous eyebrow and a brown-tinged crown, while the subspecies ''virenticeps'', ''contrerasi'' and ''saturata'' from north-western Peru and western Ecuador have greenish-yellow (not grey, as in the "typical" subspecies) nape, auriculars and cheeks.

The song is a whistled phrase with the rhythm ''"Do you wash every week?"'', but there are extensive variations depending on both individual and range. It is often heard but hard to see as it feeds on insects and spiders high in the foliage, though it has been observed to take small lizards as well.

Behaviour and ecology

The nest is a flimsy cup high in a tree with a typical clutch of two or three pinkish-white eggs lightly blotched with brown. Like most vireos, the peppershrike ejects parasitic cowbird eggs.

Image gallery

File:Rufous-browed Peppershrike on its nest.JPG, A bird on its nest, 10 m above a stream near El Copey de Dota, Costa Rica, illustrating how cryptic the nests can be.
File:CyclorhisContrerasiGlaser.jpg, Illustration of ''C. g. contrerasi''
File:Cyclarhis gujanensis 1.jpg, Individual from Goiânia, Brazil

References

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Further reading

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External links

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{{Taxonbar, from=Q678728

rufous-browed peppershrike
Birds of Central America
Birds of South America
rufous-browed peppershrike
rufous-browed peppershrike