Mouse-colored thistletail

Schizoeaca griseomurina

SUBFAMILY

Synallaxeinae

TAXONOMY

Schizoeaca griseomurina P.L. Sclater, 1882.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Synallaxe souris; German: Grau-Distelschwanzschlüpfer; Spanish: Piscuiz Gris.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Body length is about 7.5 in (18.5–19 cm). Bill is short, straight, and pointed. The body is slender, and the tail is very long, tipped with spines, and has a frayed appearance. The sexes are similar. The back, tail, and wings are colored dull olive-brown, the belly and throat are light grayish, there is a white eye-ring, and there is a whitish stripe over the eye.

DISTRIBUTION

An endemic species that only occurs in a small area in the Andes of southern Ecuador and extreme northern Peru.

HABITAT

Inhabits slopes with humid montane forest and woodland and their edges, just below or near the altitudinal tree-line and in woody clumps above it. Occurs at elevations of 9,200–10,800 ft (2,800–3,300 m).

BEHAVIOR

Occurs singly or as pairs. The song is a high-pitched trill.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Forages in the dense forest canopy, often quite acrobatically, for insects and other small invertebrates among leaves and twigs.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Constructs a large, bulky, roughly spherical nest, with a side entrance, and attached to a limb of a tree. Both the male and female incubate the eggs and rear the nestlings.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened. A very local species, but abundant within its highly restricted range.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known.