Mouse-colored Thistletail

Overview

The mouse-colored thistletail (Asthenes griseomurina) is a small passerine bird in the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is a year-round resident found in the high-altitude Andes of Ecuador and Peru.

Identification

• Measures 18 to 21 cm in length with a long, deeply forked tail that appears ragged due to few barbs at the feather ends.
• Exhibits dull olive-brown upperparts and pale grayish brown underparts, with a faint light gray-brown supercilium and a white eyering on an otherwise gray face.
• Possesses blue-gray legs and feet, a dark gray maxilla, and a paler but variable mandible.
• Song is described as a trill increasing in speed and amplitude, slightly descending in pitch, lasting approximately two seconds and repeated every six seconds.

Habitat

Found on both slopes of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru, inhabiting páramo grasslands, the tree line ecotone between grasslands and cloud forest, and Polylepis woodlands. In Ecuador, it mostly ranges between 2,800 and 4,000 m elevation, while in Peru it occurs between 2,150 and 3,300 m depending on the specific Andean range.

Diet

Its diet is mostly arthropods, though specific details are not fully documented. It usually forages in pairs close to the ground, gleaning prey from foliage and small branches, and only rarely joins mixed-species feeding flocks.

Did you know?

The bird's long, deeply forked tail has few barbs at the feather ends, giving it a distinctive ragged appearance.