The northern nightingale-wren (''Microcerculus philomela''), or nightingale wren, is a species of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

bird in the family Troglodytidae. It is found in Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 15, 2019

Taxonomy and systematics

The northern nightingale-wren forms a species pair with the

southern nightingale-wren The southern nightingale-wren (''Microcerculus marginatus''), also known as the scaly-breasted wren, is a species of bird in the family Troglodytidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.C ...

(''Microcerculus marginatus'') and was in the past considered conspecific with it. It is currently treated as a species in its own right by 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) and the

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 202 ...

, though under different English names. It 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 "unispe ...

.Rentschlar, K. (2020). Nightingale Wren (''Microcerculus philomela''), 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.nigwre1.01 retrieved July 18, 2021

Description

The northern nightingale-wren is long; seven males weighed and four females . Adults are almost entirely dark brown, but with a dark gray throat and breast. Black tips on feathers of both the upper- and undersides give a scalloped appearance. Juveniles are similar though the scaling on their upperparts is darker and that on the underparts is whitish to pale gray.

Distribution and habitat

The northern nightingale-wren is found from Chiapas in Mexico through Guatemala, southern Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua into northern Costa Rica. It mostly occurs along the Atlantic side but is found locally on the Pacific side in Chiapas and Costa Rica. In Mexico it ranges in elevation from near sea level to , and in Costa Rica occasionally up to that level but more commonly only as high as . The northern nightingale-wren inhabits the interior of lowland

tropical forest Tropical forests (a.k.a. jungle) are forested landscapes in tropical regions: ''i.e.'' land areas approximately bounded by the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds. Some tropical fore ...

. It favors virgin evergreen forest and undisturbed cloud forest.

Behavior

Feeding

The northern nightingale-wren forages on and near the ground, in undergrowth, brush piles, and on fallen logs. It opportunistically follows

army ant The name army ant (or legionary ant or ''marabunta'') is applied to over 200 ant species in different lineages. Because of their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as "raids", a huge number of ants forage simultaneously over a limi ...

swarms. Its diet is almost entirely insects.

Breeding

The northern nightingale-wren is reported to breed between May and September in Costa Rica, but little else is known about its nesting biology.

Vocalization

The northern nightingale-wren's song is a "confident to hesitant, rising and falling series of whistles". It is sung during most of the year and often from low perches.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the northern nightingale-wren as being of Least Concern. However, because of its preference for undisturbed forest, it is considered under threat in much of its range due to the clearing and fragmentation of forest for agriculture.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3314471 Microcerculus Birds of Central America Birds of Belize Birds of Guatemala Birds of Costa Rica Birds of Honduras Birds of Nicaragua Birds of Mexico Birds described in 1861 Taxa named by Osbert Salvin Taxonomy articles created by Polbot