Rusty-backed Spinetail

Overview

The rusty-backed spinetail (Cranioleuca vulpina) is a Neotropical species of bird in the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and is considered fairly common to common throughout its extensive range in South America.

Identification

• Length of 15 to 16 cm with reddish chestnut crown, back, and tail contrasting with light brown underparts.
• Nominate adults feature a buff supercilium, a narrow dark brownish line behind the eye, and a buff-white chin.
• Song includes a rapid series of emphatic notes accelerating and fading over 2.5 to 3 seconds, described as 'ch-ch-ch-chchchchchewewewewewew', or as descending, complaining notes.
• Legs are dull greenish olive or greyish, with a black maxilla and dull horn to silvery horn mandible.

Habitat

Found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, and possibly Guyana, inhabiting landscapes on or near water such as gallery forest, river islands, thickets, and shrubby areas around lakes and streams. Elevation ranges from near sea level to 400 m.

Diet

Feeds on arthropods, typically foraging singly or in pairs, and occasionally joining mixed-species flocks. It acrobatically gleans prey from bark, dead leaves, and occasionally live leaves while hitching along small branches in the lower forest levels, though it may feed higher in riverside forest.

Did you know?

Its nest is a globe of grass, roots, and sticks lined with bark shreds and lichens, often wedged in a low tree or shrub fork above water where it resembles flood debris.