The silvery-fronted tapaculo (''Scytalopus argentifrons'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family Rhinocryptidae. It is found in Costa Rica and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The silvery-fronted tapaculo has two subspecies, the nominate "silvery-fronted" ''Scytalopus argentifrons argentifrons'' and the "Chiriqui" ''S. a. chiriquensis''. The Chiriqui subspecies has at times been considered a separate species.Krabbe, N. and T. S. Schulenberg (2020). Silvery-fronted Tapaculo (''Scytalopus argentifrons''), 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.siftap1.01 retrieved April 29, 2021

Description

The silvery-fronted tapaculo is long and weighs . The male of the nominate subspecies is mostly sooty black; the lower breast and belly are paler. The flanks and crissum (the area around the

cloaca In animal anatomy, a cloaca ( ), plural cloacae ( or ), is the posterior orifice that serves as the only opening for the digestive, reproductive, and urinary tracts (if present) of many vertebrate animals. All amphibians, reptiles and birds ...

) are brownish red. It has a silvery forehead (the "front") and a 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 ...

. The male Chiriqui is darker with a less prominent supercilium. The females of both subspecies do not have a supercilium; their upper parts are dark brown, the throat and breast are dark gray, the belly blackish, and the flanks and crissum brighter brownish red than the male's. The juvenile is similar to the female but darker with brown "scales" on the underparts.

Distribution and habitat

The silvery-fronted tapaculo is the only member of its family whose entire range is in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. (The Tacarcuna tapaculo, ''S. panamensis'', is found in far southern Panama and Colombia.) It inhabits the Talamancan montane forests at elevations of . The Chiriqui subspecies is found only in western Panama. The nominate ''S. a. argentifrons'' has the wider range, from western Panama north through Costa Rica almost to the border with

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea, Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to ...

. If frequents thickets and bamboo in the undergrowth of humid

primary forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

and

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

, especially in ravines and along streams.

Behavior

Feeding

The silvery-fronted tapaculo forages for insects and other

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

s while creeping and hopping along the ground.

Breeding

The silvery-fronted tapaculo's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

has not been described.

Vocalization

The silvery-fronted tapaculo's song is a series of notes that slow but get louder during its five to 10 second duratio

Its call is similar but shorte

Status

The IUCN has assessed the silvery-fronted tapaculo as being of Least Concern. Though it has a restricted range and its population number is not known, it appears to be fairly common and occurs in protected areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1258983 silvery-fronted tapaculo Birds of the Talamancan montane forests silvery-fronted tapaculo Taxa named by Robert Ridgway Taxonomy articles created by Polbot