The straight-billed earthcreeper (''Ochetorhynchus ruficaudus'') 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 Furnariidae. It is found in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is subtropical or tropical high-altitude

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

Description

The straight-billed earthcreeper grows to a length of about . The upper parts are pale brown with rufous colour on some of the flight feathers. The tail is rufous brown, with blackish inner webs to the central feathers, and is often kept cocked at a marked angle. The throat and chest are white and the breast and belly are pale brown, with white streaks. The beak is long and straight, and there is a narrow white

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 ...

above the eye.

Distribution and habitat

This species occurs in the foothills of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

Mountains, its range extending from southern Peru and the La Paz Department in western Bolivia to northern Argentina and the eastern fringes of Chile. Its typical habitats are rocky hillsides, rocky outcrops and ravines at altitudes between , but it is more frequently occurs above .

Ecology

The straight-billed earthcreeper usually occurs in pairs or singly but is rather elusive, hopping about on the ground among boulders and in rocky areas. The song, often uttered from the ground, is a loud series of notes that first rises in pitch and then slowly descends and fades away.

Status

The straight-billed earthcreeper has a very wide range in Bolivia, southern Peru, northern and central Chile and northwestern Argentina. It is a fairly common bird and despite the fact that the population appears to be declining, this is not happening at such a fast rate as to make it vulnerable, and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature 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 its conservation status as being of

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

* SACC (2007)
Reinstate Ochetorhynchus and merge Chilia and Eremobius into it.
Accessed 2008-10-28. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1264250 straight-billed earthcreeper Birds of Argentina Birds of the Puna grassland Birds of the Southern Andes straight-billed earthcreeper Taxonomy articles created by Polbot