The brown trembler (''Cinclocerthia ruficauda'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family Mimidae, the mockingbirds and thrashers. It is found on the islands of

Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Şaba (Romanian for Shabo), a town of the Odesa Oblast, Ukraine * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Saba (river), L ...

St. Kitts Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...

Nevis Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Ne ...

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

and

St. Vincent Saint Vincent may refer to: People Saints * Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), a.k.a. Vincent the Deacon, deacon and martyr * Saint Vincenca, 3rd century Roman martyress, whose relics are in Blato, Croatia * Vincent, Orontius, and Victor (died 305) ...

in the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc betwe ...

of the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

.Sibbald, E. (2020). Brown Trembler (''Cinclocerthia ruficauda''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.brotre1.01 retrieved August 3, 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The taxonomy of genus ''Cinclocerthia'' is not fully resolved. The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

(IOC) recognizes the brown trembler and the

grey trembler The grey trembler (''Cinclocerthia gutturalis'') is a songbird species in the family Mimidae, the mockingbirds and thrashers. It is found only on Martinique and Saint Lucia in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean Sea. Taxonomy and systematic ...

(''C. gutturalis''). It divides the brown trembler into four subspecies, the nominate ''C. r. ruficauda'', ''C. r. pavida'', ''C. r. tremula'', and ''C. r. tenebrosa''. However, there is significant

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

evidence that brown tremblers from Guadeloupe northwards may represent a separate species (''C. tremula'') from those on the other islands. Some authors consider ''tremula'' to be part of ''ruficauda''

Description

The nominate subspecies of brown trembler is long; males weigh and females . The species has a long, slightly downcurved bill, the female's longer than the male's. Adults are mostly shades of brown. Their crown is a deep grayish brown, the nape less gray, the back an olive brown, and the rump and tail a reddish brown. The face is blackish through the eye with grayish olive brown cheeks. The chin and throat are pale grayish buff that becomes browner on the breast and belly. The sides and flanks are cinnamon. The juvenile is similar with faint dusky spots on the breast. ''C. r. pavida'' is larger than the nominate but is otherwise similar. ''C. r. tenebrosa'' is also similar to the nominate, but its upperparts are darker and sootier and the breast more grayish. ''C. r. tremula'' is similar to ''tenebrosa'' but much larger.

Distribution and habitat

Subspecies ''C. r. pavida'' of the brown trembler is the most widely distributed; it is found in the northern Lesser Antilles from Saba south to Montserrat. ''C. r. tremula'' is restricted to Guadeloupe, the nominate ''C. r. ruficauda'' to Dominica, and ''C. r. tenebrosa'' to St. Vincent. The brown trembler mostly inhabits humid evergreen forest but is also found in

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

and plantations. In elevation it ranges from sea level to about .

Behavior

Tremblers derive their name from a typical behavior "in which the wings both are drooped and angled slightly away from the body...making very rapid vertical and lateral motions.

Feeding

The brown trembler forages on the ground, in the understory, and in the midstory. It tosses leaves with its bill and more typically probes

epiphyte An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

s, gaps between vines and trunks, and clusters of dead leaves. Its diet includes a wide variety of fruit,

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

s, and small vertebrates.

Breeding

Little is known about the brown trembler's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples includ ...

. It apparently breeds in March and April. The only documented nest was in a coconut palm, "cup-shaped and ... composed of rootlets, lined with finer rootlets and dead leaves".

Vocalization

The brown trembler's principal song is "a series of variable loud phrases

ranging Length measurement, distance measurement, or range measurement (ranging) refers to the many ways in which length, distance, or range can be measured. The most commonly used approaches are the rulers, followed by transit-time methods and the int ...

in quality from 'rather harsh, others rich and warbled, still others high and squeaky'" It also has "subsongs" delivered less frequently. A common call is "a nasal, rasping ''yeeeah'', often repeated many times".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the brown trembler as being of Least Concern. However, its population size and trend have not been determined and "it is likely that further deforestation and conversion to plantations or other human settlement will

result A result (also called upshot) is the final consequence of a sequence of actions or events expressed qualitatively or quantitatively. Possible results include advantage, disadvantage, gain, injury, loss, value and victory. There may be a range ...

in a population decrease."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q901986

brown trembler The brown trembler (''Cinclocerthia ruficauda'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae, the mockingbirds and thrashers. It is found on the islands of Saba, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica and St. Vincent in the Lesser A ...

Birds of Montserrat Birds of Dominica Birds of Guadeloupe Birds of Saint Kitts and Nevis Birds of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot