The slender-billed miner (''Geositta tenuirostris'') 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 subfamily Sclerurinae, the leaftossers and miners, 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 ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, 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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The slender-billed miner has two subspecies, the nominate ''G. t. tenuirostris'' ( Lafrenaye, 1836) and ''G. t. kalimayae'' ( Krabbe, 1992). Among the members of genus ''Geositta'' the coastal miner is most closely related to the

common miner The common miner (''Geositta cunicularia'') is a passerine bird in the subfamily Sclerurinae, the leaftossers and miners, of the ovenbird family (biology), family Furnariidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay ...

(''G. cunicularia'').Remsen, Jr., J. V. (2020). Slender-billed Miner (''Geositta tenuirostris''), 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.slbmin1.01 retrieved April 30, 2023

Description

The slender-billed miner is a large member of its genus. It is long and weighs . The sexes are alike. The nominate subspecies has a pale buffy brownish face with a whitish supercilium, a dark brownish stripe behind the eye, and a vague darker "moustache". It has a dull brown crown with wavy streaks, dull grayish brown upperparts, and slightly paler rump and uppertail coverts. Its central pair of tail feathers are dull brown with darker ends. The rest progress outward with less and less dark at the ends and more rufescent at their base to the outermost two pairs' rufous with some pale cinnamon. Dark brown wing coverts with dark buff tips form distinct wing bars. Its flight feathers are dark dusky with some rufous. Its throat is whitish, its breast buff-white with wavy brownish streaks, its belly pale buffy whitish, and its undertail coverts pale tawny. Its iris is dark brown, its long decurved bill is blackish with a pinkish base to the

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 ...

, and its legs and feet black. Subspecies ''G. t. kalimayae'' is smaller and grayer than the nominate with darker wings and tail and more streaks on its breast.

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of the slender-billed miner is by far the more widely distributed of the two. It is found on both slopes of the Andes of Peru almost from the border with Ecuador south through the Andes of Bolivia into northwestern Argentina as far as

Tucumán Province Tucumán () is the most densely populated, and the second-smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the province has the capital of San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighb ...

. ''G. t. kalimayae'' is found disjunctly in central Ecuador's Cotopaxi Province. The species inhabits puna grass- and scrublands, pastures, and cultivated land; it is often found near water. In elevation it ranges between .

Behavior

Movement

The slender-billed miner is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The slender-billed miner forages on the ground, gleaning, probing, and excavating for invertebrates. Its diet includes beetles, butterflies and moth larvae, spiders, and

springtail Springtails (class Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern Hexapoda, hexapods that are no longer considered insects. Although the three lineages are sometimes grouped together in a class called Entognatha because they have in ...

Breeding

The slender-billed miner breeds during the austral summer. Males perform a display flight. The species nests in tunnels; one was thought to have been excavated in a bank by a '' Upucerthia'' earthcreeper. A nest of dried grass was in an elarged chamber at its end. The clutch size is two eggs.

Vocalization

The slender-billed miner's display flight song is "a repetitive series of 'jit' or 'keek' notes". Its calls have been described as "keeeeek", "week, week", "chwea" and a nasal "kyeenh".

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 slender-billed miner as being of Least Concern. It has a large range, and though its population size is not known it is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered fairly common throughout its range.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q258508 slender-billed miner Birds of the Puna grassland slender-billed miner Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Frédéric de Lafresnaye