The Perija thistletail (''Asthenes perijana'') is an Endangered species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is endemic to the Perijá Mountains in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and Venezuela.Clements, J. F., P.C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved October 28, 2023

Taxonomy and systematics

The Perija thistletail was long treated as a subspecies of the white-chinned thistletail (then ''Schizoeaca fuliginosa'', now ''Asthenes fuliginosa'') but was eventually separated as a species. They and several other species were in genus ''Schizoeaca'' but genetic data showed that the genus is embedded within ''Asthenes''.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, G. Del-Rio, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 28 September 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved October 20, 2023Remsen, Jr., J. V., P. F. D. Boesman, and C. J. Sharpe (2020). Perija Thistletail (''Asthenes perijana''), 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.perthi1.01 retrieved November 8, 2023 The Perija thistletail is monotypic.

Description

The Perija thistletail is long and weighs . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a faint grayish

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 ...

. Their crown, back, rump, and tail are grayish olive-brown. Their wings are grayish olive-brown with chestnut on the

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...

and the base of the flight feathers. Their tail is long and deeply forked with few barbs at the feather ends that give a ragged appearance. Their chin has a cinnamon-buff patch. Their throat and the rest of their underparts are brownish gray. Their iris is reddish brown, their maxilla black, their mandible grayish with a black tip, and their legs and feet gray.

Distribution and habitat

The Perija thistletail is found only in the

Serranía del Perijá The Serranía del Perijá, Cordillera de Perijá or Sierra de Perijá is a mountain range, an extension of the eastern Andean branch ( Cordillera Oriental), in northern South America, between Colombia and Venezuela Venezuela (; ), offici ...

, a mountain range that straddles the border between northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela. It primarily inhabits

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

grasslands, the upper edge of

cloudforest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

, and dense undergrowth at tree line. In elevation it ranges between .

Behavior

Movement

The Perija thistletail is believed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The Perija thistletail feeds mostly on arthropods and occasionally adds berries to its diet. It forages in the undergrowth, usually singly or in pairs. It is believed to forage by gleaning prey from foliage and branches.

Breeding

The Perija thistletail's breeding season has not been defined but includes July. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.

Vocalization

The Perija thistletail's song is "some 3-5 drawn out high-pitched 'pee' notes followed by a short descending dry trill".

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 Perija thistletail as Vulnerable but since 2004 as Endangered. It has a very small range and its estimated population of between 150 and 700 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. "Habitat below 2,000 m in the Sierra de Perijá is threatened by narcotics cultivation, uncontrolled colonisation, cattle-ranching and mineral exploitation". " Only patches of montane forest remain on the steepest slopes of the Cerro Pintado." Its area of occupancy is estimated at about . One preserve in Colombia offers some protection, but protection in Venezueala's Sierra de Perijá National Park is only nominal. "At the national level, regarded as Endangered in Colombia and Vulnerable in Venezuela."

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1140441 Perijá thistletail Birds of the Serranía del Perijá Perijá thistletail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot