White-browed Spinetail

Overview

The white-browed spinetail, Hellmayrea gularis, is a small bird in the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is the only member of its genus and is currently assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN.

Identification

• Measures 11 to 13.5 cm long with a short tail whose feathers have pointed ends and lack barbs.
• Features whitish supercilia that nearly meet on the forehead against a dark rufescent brown face.
• Underparts are unmarked cinnamon-brown to buffy brown with a white throat separated by a thin black band.
• Song is a series of high-pitched notes ending in a trill, described as 'chit-chit-chit-chit-chi-chi-chichichichichichi'.

Habitat

Found in the Andes of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, ranging from 2,300 to 3,900 m in elevation. It primarily inhabits elfin forest, montane evergreen forest, and the undergrowth of cloud forests, often in thickets of Chusquea bamboo.

Diet

Feeds on arthropods, foraging typically singly or in pairs while occasionally joining mixed-species flocks. It hunts acrobatically by hitching and hopping up trunks or hanging upside down in the dense understorey, gleaning and probing moss, foliage, dead leaves, and bamboo.

Did you know?

The bird is the sole member of its genus, yet early taxonomists placed it with Synallaxis; modern data reveals it is not closely related to that group but instead to the genus Asthenes.