The Santa Marta foliage-gleaner (''Clibanornis rufipectus'') is a

Vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

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 ...

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Taxonomy and systematics

What is now the Santa Marta foliage-gleaner was originally described as a species in genus ''

Automolus ''Automolus'' is a genus of bird in the ovenbird family Furnariidae. Taxonomy The genus ''Automolus'' was introduced in 1853 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach to accommodate the taxon ''Sphenura sulphurascens'' Hinrich Lichtenstein, L ...

'' but in the early twentieth century it was lumped into the ruddy foliage-gleaner (at the time ''A. rubiginosus'', now ''C. rubiginosus''). Following the data in a 2008 publication, it was restored to full species status. More recent genetic data place both firmly in '' Clibanornis''. The Santa Marta, ruddy, and the Henna-hooded foliage-gleaner (''C. erythrocephalus)'') form a trio of

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 31 May 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved May 31, 2023Krabbe, N. (2008). Vocal evidence for restitution of species rank to a Santa Marta endemic: ''Automolus rufipectus'' Bangs (Furnariidae), with comments on its generic affinities. Bull. B.O.C. 128(4): 219-227Derryberry, 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 Santa Marta foliage-gleaner 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 Santa Marta foliage-gleaner is long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a reddish brown face with slightly paler lores, faint brighter markings on the 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 a ring of bare blue skin around the eye. Their crown and back are medium brown. Their wing

and flight feathers are medium reddish brown with rufous edges. Their tail is dark chestnut. Their throat is pale rufous that blends to the reddish brown breast. Their lower breast and belly are light rufescent brown. Their iris is dark brown to grayish 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 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 ...

pinkish gray to dusky horn, and their legs and feet brown to grayish olive.del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Santa Marta Foliage-gleaner (''Clibanornis rufipectus''), 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.samfog1.01 retrieved September 5, 2023

Distribution and habitat

The Santa Marta foliage-gleaner is found only in the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia. It inhabits the undergrowth of semi-humid forest, both

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 ...

and secondary, and also occurs in shade coffee plantations. It appears to favor dark ravines. Its elevational range is about .

Behavior

Movement

The Santa Marta foliage-gleaner is assumed to be a year-round resident.

Feeding

The Santa Marta foliage-gleaner's diet has not been detailed but is assumed to be

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 and also small vertebrates like that of the ruddy foliage-gleaner. It usually forages alone or in pairs and only rarely 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 typically forages in dense vegetation within of the ground where it takes its prey mostly from dead leaves.

Breeding

Aside from the discovery of an active nest in February, nothing is known about the Santa Marta foliage-gleaner's breeding biology. (No details of the nest were recorded.)

Vocalization

The Santa Marta foliage-gleaner's song is very different from those of its former fellow ruddy foliage-gleaner subspecies; the differences were part of the evidence for its being recognized as a species. A very detailed description is Its calls are "churrs, both two- or three-noted while foraging but three- to four-noted in alarm" and are also quite different from those of ruddy foliage-gleaner.

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 ...

originally in 2011 assessed the Santa Marta foliage-gleaner as Near Threatened but in 2020 uplisted it to Vulnerable. It has a small range and its estimated population of 9300 to 13,100 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. "Despite its tolerance of low levels of habitat conversion, the species is threatened by the loss and fragmentation of its habitat, and it was found to be absent in sun-grown coffee plantations and in small secondary-growth patches surrounded by open areas." and "Deforestation and forest degradation are accelerating and are projected to increase further, as coffee plantations and touristic infrastructure expand across the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta." About 40% of its range is in protected areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1260650 Santa Marta foliage-gleaner Birds of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Endemic birds of Colombia Near threatened animals Near threatened biota of South America Santa Marta foliage-gleaner