Creamy-crested Spinetail

Overview

The creamy-crested spinetail (Cranioleuca albicapilla) is a large species of bird in the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is endemic to Peru, where it exists as two subspecies that intergrade where their ranges meet. The species is currently assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN.

Identification

• Measures 16 to 17 cm in length and weighs 18 to 24 g, making it a large member of its genus.
• Features a distinctive head pattern with a creamy-white crown and crest, a narrow whitish supercilium, and gray-brown lores on a buffy face.
• Possesses an olivaceous gray back that becomes browner at the rump, dark rufous wing coverts, and a graduated rufous tail with pointed tips.
• Song consists of a loud, ascending-descending series of semi-musical notes, often given in duet, while calls include rising whistles and rapid series of notes.

Habitat

Found in the Andes of central and southern Peru, specifically across the departments of Junín, Ayacucho, Apurímac, and Cuzco. It inhabits semi-humid and humid montane forests, woodlands, cloud forest, and Polylepis woodlands. The species typically ranges in elevation between 2,400 and 3,650 m, though it can be found as high as 4,240 m.

Diet

Feeds primarily on arthropods, likely possessing a highly varied diet due to its diverse habitat mix. It typically forages singly or in pairs, though it often joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It probes for and gleans prey from bark, vegetation, lichens, and moss while hitching acrobatically along trunks and branches, usually in the forest's lower levels between 2 and 8 m above the ground.

Did you know?

The species constructs its nest as a globe of moss, twigs, and bark strips with an entrance located at the bottom, which is usually hung from the end of a branch.