The slaty spinetail or slaty castlebuilder, (''Synallaxis brachyura''), is a passerine bird which breeds in the tropical New World from northern

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

to western Ecuador and east-central Brazil. It is a member of the South American bird family Furnariidae, a group in which many species build elaborate clay nests, giving rise to the English name for the family of "ovenbirds". However, the slaty spinetail constructs a bulky spherical stick nest 36x43 cm in size, with a long tubular entrance, 0.4–4.5 m high in a shrub or vine covered tree. It lays two or three greenish white

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s. This species is a widespread and common resident breeder in lowlands and up to 1500 m altitude in a range of scrubby habitats, including second growth, road and river edges, and overgrown pasture. The slaty spinetail is typically 15 cm long, and weighs 18.5 g. It is a slender bird with a long, pointed wispy tail. The

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

is mainly dark grey-brown becoming dark grey on the head. The crown and shoulder patches are rich rufous. Sexes are similar, but young birds are duller and browner with a yellowish chin. The slaty spinetail is an

insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

which is difficult to see as it forages for beetles, caterpillars and other prey deep in tangled thickets, but may be located by its hard ' call.

References

* Stiles and Skutch, ''A guide to the birds of Costa Rica''

References

Further reading