Scale-throated Earthcreeper

Overview

The scale-throated earthcreeper is a large ovenbird found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and possibly Uruguay. It inhabits arid scrublands and puna grasslands, ranging in elevation as high as 4,000 m.

Identification

• 20 to 22 cm long with a long, very decurved blackish bill and dark brown legs.
• Grayish white and dark grayish brown face with a whitish supercilium; crown and back are dull dark grayish brown.
• Throat is whitish with thin dark bars, and the breast is dark grayish brown with a black scalloped appearance.
• Song consists of a repeating 'chippy, chippy, chippy, chip' or 'pli-pli-pli-pli-pli...' increasing in pitch, often sung from the top of a bush.

Habitat

Found in puna grassland and arid scrublands in both lowlands and the Andes. It favours rocky grassland, shrubby slopes, and shrub–steppe broken by ravines and rock outcrops. The species ranges from far southern Chile and Argentina to western Bolivia and far southeastern Peru.

Diet

The bird feeds on arthropods, usually foraging alone by probing and gleaning from the ground.

Did you know?

This species usually nests at the end of a tunnel it excavates in an earth bank or sloping ground, but has also been documented nesting in holes in human structures and rock crevices.