Steinbach's canastero (''Pseudasthenes steinbachi'') or the chestnut canastero, 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 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 ...

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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

Steinbach's canastero was originally described as '' Siptornis steinbachi'' and was later long placed in genus ''

Asthenes Canasteros and thistletails are small passerine birds of South America belonging to the genus ''Asthenes''. The name "canastero" comes from Spanish language, Spanish and means "basket-maker", referring to the large, domed nests these species mak ...

''. Beginning in 2010 it and three other members of ''Asthenes'' were moved to the newly coined genus ''

Pseudasthenes ''Pseudasthenes'' is a genus of small suboscine passerine birds, commonly known as canasteros or false canasteros, in the ovenbird family. It was described in 2010 to accommodate four species split from the related genus ''Asthenes''. The genus ...

''. Steinbach's canastero 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 ...

. (Subspecies ''neiffi'' of the short-billed canastero (''Asthenes baeri'') was originally described as a subspecies of Steinbach's canastero.)

Description

Steinbach's canastero is long and weighs . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a pale

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 ...

on an otherwise grayish brown face. Their crown and back are dull gray-brown, their rump chestnut, and their uppertail

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 ...

rufous-chestnut. Their wings are mostly rufous with dark fuscous outer halves to the flight feathers. Their tail's inner feathers are blackish fuscous with rufescent outer webs and the outer two pairs entirely rufous or chestnut. Their chin and throat are whitish with faint dusky specks, their breast and belly grayish, and their flanks and undertail coverts tawny-rufous or pale cinnamon. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their bill black to dark brown, and their legs and feet brown to black.

Distribution and habitat

Steinbach's canastero is found in western Argentina from southern

Salta Province Salta () is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa Province, Formosa, Chaco Province, Chaco, Santiago del Estero Province, Santiago del Es ...

south to

Neuquén Neuquén (; ) is the capital city of the Argentine province of Neuquén and of the Confluencia Department, located in the east of the province. It occupies a strip of land west of the confluence of the Limay and Neuquén rivers which form t ...

and Río Negro provinces.Areta, J.I., Hernández, I., Prieto, J., Delhey, K. and Povedano, H. (2012). La distribución austral del Canastero Castaño (''Pseudasthenes steinbachi''). Nuestras Aves 57: 54–59. In Spanish It inhabits arid montane scrublands, where it favors ravines, and monte woodlands. In elevation it ranges from .

Behavior

Movement

Steinbach's canastero is mostly resident but some in higher elevations move to lower ones after the breeding season.

Feeding

Little is known about the diet or feeding behavior of Steinbach's canastero. It is usually seen singly or in pairs and is believed to glean

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 from the ground and low vegetation.

Breeding

Steinbach's canastero is thought to breed during the austral spring and summer, and is thought to be monogamous. Its nest is a globe of thorny sticks with a side entrance, typically placed in a bush above the ground. The nest chamber is lined with softer plant material, hair, and feathers. The clutch size is two or three eggs. The incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.

Vocalization

Xeno-canto xeno-canto is a citizen science project and repository in which volunteers record, upload and annotate recordings of bird calls and sounds of orthoptera and bats. Since it began in 2005, it has collected over 575,000 sound recordings from more th ...

and the

Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a member-supported unit of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, which studies birds and other wildlife. It is housed in the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods Sanctuar ...

Macaulay Library The Macaulay Library is the world's largest archive of animal media. It includes more than 71 million photographs, 2.6 million audio recordings, and over three hundred thousand videos covering 96 percent of the world's bird species. There are an ev ...

have many recordings of the vocalizations of Steinbach's canastero, but they have not been described in words.

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 assessed Steinbach's canastero as Vulnerable but since 2004 has rated it as being of Least Concern. It has a large range and an unknown population size that is believed to be stable. "Settlement and agricultural conversion have altered habitat in small parts of the species range, and grazing by cattle and goats may pose some threat. However, extensive tracts of suitable habitat remain unaffected and the species occurs in several protected areas." It is considered rare to uncommon.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1274224 Pseudasthenes Endemic birds of Argentina Birds described in 1909 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot