Alternative name: Cinnamon-capped Spinetail
- Cranioleuca albiceps
Identification
14-15 cm. A rather dark Cranioleuca Spinetail with a distinctive pale crown.
- Striking white or buff-tawny crown
- Grey-brown supercilium bordered above by blackish line
- Dark greyish-brown rest of face, some black around eye
- Dull dark brownish neck collar
- Intense reddish-chestnut back, becoming duller and browner on rump
- Reddish-chestnut wings
- Reddish-chestnut graduated tail with spiny appearance
- Greyish-white throat, becoming uniform olivaceous brownish on breast and belly
- discolor has ochraceous to deep buff crown and hindneck and greyer tones on throat and breast
Sexes similar, juveniles undescribed.
Distribution
Andes of Bolivia and extreme southern Peru.
A fairly common restricted-range species.
Taxonomy
Two subspecies recognized:
- C. a. albiceps in the Andes of extreme southern Peru and western Bolivia
- C. a. discolor in the Andes of Bolivia
Forms a superspecies with Marcapata Spinetail.
Habitat
Moist montanes, often with Chusquea bamboo.
Occurs at 2200 to 3400 m.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds on arthropods. Usually seen foraging in pairs in mixed-species flocks. Forages in mid-storey and at edge of forest.
Gleans items acrobatically from leaves and bark.
Breeding
Presumably a monogamous species. One described nest was an oval clump made of moss, hanging down from the end of a bamboo branch, about 6 m above the ground. No other information.
Movements
This is a resident species.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2014)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Light-crowned Spinetail. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 23 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Light-crowned_Spinetail
