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 - White-breasted Tapaculo
 - White-breasted Tapaculo
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White-breasted Tapaculo Eleoscytalopus indigoticus Scientific name definitions

Niels Krabbe and Thomas S. Schulenberg
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated November 13, 2015

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Introduction

The White-breasted Tapaculo is a generally uncommon bird that is endemic to southern and southeast Brazil; its overall range encompasses southern Bahia south to northern Rio Grande do Sul. The species occurs in humid forest and woodland, within which, like all tapaculos, it is confined to the undergrowth, and can be very difficult to see, although its somewhat ‘churring’ frog-like song does draw the attention, and is immediately distinctive. Both its plumage (dark bluish above and extensively white below) and vocalizations are very similar to the closely related Bahia Tapaculo (Eleoscytalopus psyschopompus), and these two species were recently removed from the genus Scytalopus based on genetic evidence.

Field Identification

11 cm; male 13–18 g, female 12·2–16 g. A small tapaculo with mostly white underparts and barred flanks. Male has small whitish spot on lores, often a few whitish spots behind eye ; upperparts dark to ­blackish blue-grey, lower back and rump reddish-brown; throat and central underparts white, side of underbody dark blue-grey, flanks and vent extensively chestnut-rufous with distinct dusky barring, thighs brown with dark bars; birds from Espírito Santo have dark of underbody extending to side of breast, darker flanks with weaker barring; iris dark brown; upper mandible blackish, lower pale grey to yellow; tarsus yellowish-brown. Female resembles male, but upperparts browner. Juvenile  is brown, barred dusky; immature like female.

Systematics History

Has been considered perhaps to include E. psychopompus as a race or merely a variant, but genetic data (1) clearly indicate that the two are sister-species; same study reveals large genetic divergence between N and S populations of present species; further research required. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

SE Brazil from E Bahia (near Salvador) S to W Paraná, E Santa Catarina and NE Rio Grande do Sul.

Habitat

Ground and lower parts of undergrowth of open forest, edge of closed forest, and dense secondary forest. Occurs in lowlands, up to 1500 m; generally found lower than S. speluncae, but some overlap locally above 800 m.

Movement

Probably sedentary.

Diet and Foraging

Insects. Forages mouse-like on, and occasionally just above, the ground, often not cocking tail.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song a trilled repetition 7–8 seconds long of a 1 kHz (fundamental) note, 15–16 notes per second, gradually increasing in volume over the initial 1–2 seconds; when harmonics audible, second overtone sometimes (always?) louder than first. It regularly sings inside tree cavities , perhaps to amplify sound (2).

Breeding

Reported to be double-brooded in Espírito Santo. 1 nest  found was of roots and moss, with some feathers on the inside, and placed in a heap of leaves alongside a tree trunk. Clutch 2 eggs, 20·8 × 17 mm; incubation period 15 days.

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Near Threatened. Rare to locally fairly common. Occurs in lower part of Itatiaia National Park, in Fazenda Intervales State Reserve, in Augusto Ruschi Biological Reserve, in Caraça Natural Park, and presumably also in several other (small) protected areas. Although believed not to be at immediate risk, the species has suffered from widespread and continued forest clearance, resulting in serious fragmentation of its habitat.

Distribution of the White-breasted Tapaculo - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the White-breasted Tapaculo

Recommended Citation

Krabbe, N. and T. S. Schulenberg (2020). White-breasted Tapaculo (Eleoscytalopus indigoticus), 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.whbtap1.01
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