The Coiba spinetail (''Cranioleuca dissita'') is a member of the family Furnariidae (ovenbirds) that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Coiba Coiba is the largest island in Central America, with an area of , off the Pacific coast of the Panamanian province of Chiriquí. It is part of the Tolé District of that province. History Coiba separated from continental Panama about 12,000 to ...

and Ranchería Islands,

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Coiba spinetail was originally described as a subspecies of the rusty-backed spinetail (''C. vulpina''), though the author noted that it almost warranted species status. Ridgely and Gwynne were apparently the first to treat it as a species. In 2015 the North American Classification Committee (NACC) of the American Ornithologists' Union (now the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

) recognized the species as separate based on morphological, auditory, behavioral, and genetic differences.R. Terry Chesser, Richard C. Banks, Kevin J. Burns, Carla Cicero, Jon L. Dunn, Andrew W. Kratter, Irby J. Lovette, Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza, Pamela C. Rasmussen, J. V. Remsen, Jr., James D. Risinig, Douglas F. Stotz, and Kevin Winker. "Fifty-sixth Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union ''Check-list of North American Birds''". '' The Auk: Ornithological Advances'' 2015, vol. 132:755 retrieved December 4, 2021 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),

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 2022 ...

, and

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

's ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

'' followed suit. The Coiba spinetail is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 25, 2021HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved May 27, 2021

Description

The Coiba spinetail is long. Its upperparts including the tail are russet brown, though the rump is somewhat paler. Most of the face is a dull creamy buff with a bit of gray and a pinkish buff

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also ...

. Its throat is white, the breast and belly white with a buff wash, and the flanks tawny.del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Coiba Spinetail (''Cranioleuca dissita''), 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.rubspi5.01 retrieved December 4, 2021

Distribution and habitat

The Coiba spinetail is found only on Coiba Island and the much smaller and adjacent Ranchería Island off the Pacific coast of western Panama. It inhabits the interior and roadside edges of tropical forest, but shuns shrubby areas, scrublands, and areas around houses. In elevation it ranges from sea level to near the summit of Coiba's highest peak, Cerro Torre ().

Behavior

Feeding

The Coiba spinetail is an acrobatic forager: It climbs the trunks of trees, hops among vines and small branches, hangs upside down from branches, and makes short flights between substrates. It mostly pecks at the substrates, such as the bark of trunks and limbs, moss, vines, and clusters of leaves, but also probes and gleans from them. Most foraging was observed between above the ground but it also occurred nearer the ground and as high as above it. Its diet has not been described in detail but is assumed to be

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 like that of other spinetails.

Breeding

The Coiba spinetail's breeding season spans at least from December to July, based on the dates on which nest-building was observed. Both members of a pair build the nest, a globe-shaped structure made mostly of bark and palm fibers and lined with seed down and other soft materials. It is attached to a thin vertical branch or trunk or a cluster of vines and has an entrance hole low on the side. The clutch size is not known.

Vocalization

The Coiba spinetail's song is "2-4 short introductory notes, followed by 4-6 longer notes given rapidly at the same pitch followed by about 7 even longer notes that slow down and fall in pitch." Both sexes sing, but it appears that one sex's song is stronger and clearer than the other's. Two calls are known, a "''chidididit''" and a "''deet-deet-dee-dididit''". The first appears to be a contact call, often given during foraging or when collecting nest material.

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 ...

originally assessed the Coiba spinetail as Near Threatened but since 2020 as treated it as being of Least Concern. Though it has a very limited range (approximately ), its population is estimated to be at least 9000 mature individuals and increasing. No immediate severe threats have been identified.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q27075099, from2=Q1150877 Coiba spinetail Endemic birds of Panama Coiba spinetail Taxa named by Alexander Wetmore Isthmian–Pacific moist forests