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 - Brown-rumped Tapaculo
 - Brown-rumped Tapaculo
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 - Brown-rumped Tapaculo
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Brown-rumped Tapaculo Scytalopus latebricola Scientific name definitions

Niels Krabbe and Thomas S. Schulenberg
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2003

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Introduction

The Brown-rumped Tapaculo is one of two species of tapaculos that are restricted to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northeastern Colombia. "Brown-rumped" is a name that applies equally well to many species of Scytalopus tapaculos, but this species has few other distinctive features: it is predominately gray, with brown rump and flanks. This species occurs in humid montane forests on the upper slopes of the Santa Martas, at 2000-3660 m; the other tapaculo found in this region, the Santa Marta Tapaculo (Scytalopus sanctaemartae), is found at lower elevations, and also usually has a white spot on the forecrown. Like most other species of Andean Scytalopus, the Brown-rumped Tapaculo is heard more frequently than it is seen. This tapaculo  forages for small invertebrates near the ground in dense understory; otherwise the biology of the Brown-rumped Tapaculo is all but unknown.

Field Identification

11·5 cm. A medium-sized grey tapaculo commonly with dusky-barred brown flanks; bill elevated basally and compressed laterally. Adult is dark brownish gray above, more or less washed with dark brown on back, with rump and uppertail coverts tawny-brown, wings and tail dusky brown; throat, breast and belly paler brownish gray, flanks and lower belly relatively bright rufous-chestnut and either plain or narrowly barred blackish; iris brown; bill black, base of mandible dusky pinkish; tarsus light to dark brown, sometimes mottled with brownish-pink. Juvenile is brown, each feather with black center, giving squamate or barred appearance.

Systematics History

Formerly considered to include S. meridanus, S. caracae and S. spillmanni as races; form “infasciatus” of S. griseicollis has also sometimes been treated as conspecific with present species. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Santa Marta Mts, in N Colombia.

Habitat

Dense undergrowth and thickets in humid forest and tall secondary woodland, at 2000–3660 m.

Movement

Probably sedentary.

Diet and Foraging

Details of diet not documented; presumably feeds on arthropods. Mainly terrestrial; creeps low in undergrowth and leaf litter. Occasionally climbs mossy trunks with tangled vines, to 1·5 m up.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song seven seconds long, a few introductory notes followed by rapid trill at 4·3 kHz (first overtone; fundamental audible) and pace 24 notes per second. Scold much like that of S. meridanus, 0·7–0·8 seconds long, at irregular intervals of 0·5–3 seconds, a rapid series of notes (20 per second) falling from six to 5·6 kHz (first overtone; fundamental almost equally loud), usually after 1 or a few slightly lower-pitched introductory notes, or similar but pitched at c. 4 kHz with almost equally loud fundamental and second overtone; call a nasal, high-pitched “szeow” at intervals of 3–4 seconds, up to 15 times or more.

Breeding

Adults with extremely worn plumage collected in Jul, suggesting breeding in Jun, but immatures moulting to adult plumage have been collected in Mar. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Near Threatened. Fairly common within its small range. Occurs in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park.

Distribution of the Brown-rumped Tapaculo - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Brown-rumped Tapaculo

Recommended Citation

Krabbe, N. and T. S. Schulenberg (2020). Brown-rumped Tapaculo (Scytalopus latebricola), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.brrtap1.01
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