Crested Spinetail

Overview

The crested spinetail (Cranioleuca subcristata) is a small bird belonging to the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is a year-round resident found in northwestern Venezuela and adjacent northeastern Colombia, as well as in the Serranía del Perijá on the Colombia-Venezuela border.

Identification

• Measures 14 to 15 cm in length with a long bill, despite having only a very slight crest.
• Adults feature a dull brownish face with a faint whitish-brown supercilium and an indistinctly striped crown in light and dark brown.
• Wings and tail are dark rufous with dark fuscous tips on the flight feathers, while underparts are dull tawny-brownish with a whitish-buff chin.
• Song consists of three high, shrill notes followed by a chattery descending trill, described as 'pzeep, pzeep, pzeep, pee-pee-pe-e-e-e'.

Habitat

Primarily inhabits montane evergreen forest between 50 and 1,950 m elevation, though it is scarce in Colombian lowlands. In Venezuela's Maracaibo Basin, it occurs locally in lowland tropical evergreen forest, and it also utilizes mature secondary forest and plantations.

Diet

Feeds on arthropods by acrobatically gleaning prey from bark and debris while hitching and climbing along small branches in the mid-storey to subcanopy. It typically forages singly or in pairs and often joins mixed-species feeding flocks.

Did you know?

The species is thought to be monogamous and constructs a spherical nest made mostly of grass with an entrance near the bottom, suspended from the end of a branch.