The white-browed tit-spinetail (''Leptasthenura xenothorax'') is an

Endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

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 ...

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 white-browed tit-spinetail 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 white-browed tit-spinetail is long and weighs about . It is a small-bodied, long-tailed furnariid with a short bill. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have 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 ...

with a narrow black border above it on an otherwise blackish and whitish streaked face. Their crown is bright rufous. Their upperparts are dull grayish brown, with narrow black-outlined white streaks that become more prominent on the lower back, then fainter on the rump, and become more obvious but still pale on the uppertail coverts. Their wings are dark fuscous with dull rufescent edges on the coverts and a pale tawny patch across the flight feathers. Their tail is mostly dark fuscous to black; the feathers have bare shafts on their tips giving a spiny appearance. Their throat and upper breast are whitish with coarse black mottling and the rest of their underparts are unmarked pale gray-brown. Their iris is brown to blackish gray, their bill black 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 their legs and feet black.Lloyd, H. (2020). White-browed Tit-Spinetail (''Leptasthenura xenothorax''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.wbtspi1.01 retrieved September 12, 2023

Distribution and habitat

The white-browed tit-spinetail is found only in the Peruvian Andes. It is only known from a few locations in the departments of

Cuzco Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous province and department. The city was the capital of the Inca Empire unti ...

and Apurímac. It primarily inhabits '' Polylepis'' woodlands but occasionally occurs in montane scrublands. It favors large areas of

primary forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without Disturbance (ecology), disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organizati ...

but will forage in smaller patches. In elevation it occurs between but is most common in the lower part of that range.

Behavior

Movement

The white-browed tit-spinetail is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The white-browed tit-spinetail feeds on

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 but its diet is not known in detail. It forages in pairs or small family groups and regularly joins mixed-species foraging flocks. It typically forages acrobatically in dense foliage near the top and on the outermost branches of ''Polylepis'' trees, where it gleans the foliage for prey.

Breeding

The white-browed tit-spinetail's breeding season has not been fully defined but is known to include October and November. It is monogamous. Only one nest is known; it was a cup of moss, lichen, and bark fibers in a natural cavity in a '' Polylepis racemosa'' tree and contained two eggs. The incubation period and time to fledging are not known. Both parents build the nest and provision nestlings.

Vocalization

The white-browed tit-spinetail is very vocal and often sings while foraging. Its song is "a rapid, dry descending trill, sometimes with some 1-4 shorter introductory notes ''tjit tjit trrrrrrreeeeeeeeuuu'' and lasting two seconds". Its contact call is "a ''check'' or ''tjit'' note", and it also makes "a series of ''tleet'' notes".

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 1988 assessed the white-browed tit-spinetail as Threatened, then in 1994 as Critically Endangered and since 2000 as Endangered. "This species has a very small and severely fragmented range and population, which continue to decline with habitat loss and a lack of habitat regeneration." "Uncontrolled fires and heavy grazing prevent ''Polylepis'' regeneration." "High-Andean ''Polylepis'' forest ecosystems represent one of the most threatened woodland ecosystems in the world...which continues to decline in quantity and quality." On the brighter side, " mmunity-based woodland habitat restoration efforts are currently underway at three locations in the Cordillera Vilcanota (Abra Malaga, Hulloc and Cancha-Cancha) under the guidance of the Peruvian non-governmental organization Asociación Ecosistemas Andinos (ECOAN)."

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1270671 white-browed tit-spinetail Birds of the Peruvian Andes Birds of the Puna grassland Endemic birds of Peru white-browed tit-spinetail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot