The Santa Marta wren (''Troglodytes monticola'') 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 Troglodytidae. It 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 ...

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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Santa Marta wren has often been treated a subspecies of

mountain wren The mountain wren (''Troglodytes solstitialis'') is a species of bird in the family Troglodytidae. It is found in the Andes of northwestern Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and western Venezuela. Taxonomy and systematics The mount ...

(''Troglodytes solstitialis'').Kroodsma, D. E., D. Brewer, and C. J. Sharpe (2020). Santa Marta Wren (''Troglodytes monticola''), 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.samwre1.01 retrieved July 13, 2021 The South American Classification Committee of 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 ...

(SACC/AOS) considers those two, ochraceous wren (''T. achraceus''), rufous-browed wren (''T. rufociliatus''), and tepui wren (''T. rufulus'') to be a superspecies.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 23 May 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved May 24, 2021 The Santa Marta wren 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 ...

Description

The Santa Marta wren is long. The adult's crown and upperparts are rufous brown with blackish barring on the lower back. The tail is brown and also has dark barring. It has a buffy

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 ...

and eyering. Its chin is pale buff that darkens to buffy brown on the throat and chest. Its flanks are buffy white with dark brown bars and the vent area white with blackish bars. The juvenile is similar but has dark tips on the feathers of the back and underparts.

Distribution and habitat

The Santa Marta wren is found only in the

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...

of northern Colombia. It inhabits the edges of

elfin forest Dwarf forest, elfin forest, or pygmy forest is an uncommon ecosystem featuring miniature trees, inhabited by small species of fauna such as rodents and lizards. They are usually located at high elevations, under conditions of sufficient air humi ...

, ''

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 ...

'', and scrub at

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

. In elevation it ranges from .

Behavior

Feeding

The Santa Marta wren forages from the ground to middle levels and sometimes joins

mixed species foraging flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These are ...

s. No information on its diet has been published.

Breeding

No information on the Santa Marta wren'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 ...

has been published.

Vocalization

The Santa Marta wren's song has not been formally described. Its call is a repeated "di-di".

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 Santa Marta wren as Critically Endangered. Its population is estimated to be fewer than 250 adults. It "is largely contained within Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park; but, despite supposedly protected status of the area, forest destruction, overgrazing and burning continue almost unabated."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3726390

Santa Marta wren The Santa Marta wren (''Troglodytes monticola'') is a species of bird in the family Troglodytidae. It is endemic to Colombia. Taxonomy and systematics The Santa Marta wren has often been treated a subspecies of mountain wren (''Troglodytes ...

Birds of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Endemic birds of Colombia Critically endangered animals Critically endangered biota of South America

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot