Freckle-breasted Thornbird

Overview

The freckle-breasted thornbird (Phacellodomus striaticollis) is a medium-sized bird belonging to the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is a year-round resident found across parts of South America, assessed as being of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

Identification

• Length of 16 to 20 cm with a weight of approximately 24 to 27 g.
• Light brownish breast featuring pale streaks and dark rufous speckles, contrasting with a dingy whitish throat.
• Yellow to creamy buff or pale orange iris with a blackish to brownish maxilla and a gray mandible.
• Song consists of one to several ascending low notes followed by three to four loud, shrill descending monotonic notes ending abruptly, described as 'psep, psep, psep-kleek, kleek, kleek'.

Habitat

This species inhabits northern Argentina from Formosa to Buenos Aires, Brazil from Paraná state south, most of Uruguay, and possibly Paraguay. It occupies a variety of landscapes near water, including thickets along watercourses, gallery forest, marsh borders, and arid scrublands, occurring from near sea level to 700 m elevation.

Diet

The freckle-breasted thornbird feeds on a wide variety of arthropods, including beetles, grasshoppers, and scale insects. It usually forages in pairs, capturing prey by gleaning from the ground or from vegetation up to the forest's understorey.

Did you know?

The bird constructs oblong nests from thorny sticks that can reach 30 cm high and 50 cm long, hanging them near the end of a tree branch usually 1 to 3 m above the ground and often over water.