The Apurimac spinetail (''Synallaxis courseni'') is a

Vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Furnariidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Apurimac spinetail was thought to be most closely related to the slaty spinetail (''S. brachyura'').Blake, E.R. (1971). A new species of spinetail (''Synallaxis'') from Peru. Auk. 88(1): 179 By the late twentieth century it was considered more closely related to Azara's spinetail (''S. azarae'') and a study published in 2011 confirmed that. Some authors have suggested that it is best treated as a subspecies of Azara's spinetail.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 26 November 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved November 27, 2023Lloyd, H. (2020). Apurimac Spinetail (''Synallaxis courseni''), 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.apuspi1.01 retrieved December 6, 2023Derryberry, E. P., S. Claramunt, G. Derryberry, R. T. Chesser, J. Cracraft, A. Aleixo, J. Pérez-Emán, J. V. Remsen, Jr., and R. T. Brumfield. (2011). Lineage diversification and morphological evolution in a large-scale continental radiation: the Neotropical ovenbirds and woodcreepers (Aves: Furnariidae). Evolution 65(10):2973–2986. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01374.x Blake, who first described the Apurimac spinetail, chose its

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''courseni'' to honor C. Blair Coursen, "whose interest in neotropical birds and timely generosity in support of field work have resulted in important Peruvian collections" from which the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

came. The Apurimac 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 "unisp ...

Description

The Apurimac spinetail is long and weighs about . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a pale gray

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 k ...

on an otherwise dark gray face. Their forecrown is dark gray, their hindcrown and nape dark rufous, and their back, rump and uppertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

dark gray with a faint olivaceous tinge. Their wings are rufous with dark brown tips on the flight feathers. Their tail is dark sooty brown with a hint of rufous; the tail is very long and graduated, and the feathers have slightly pointed tips. Their throat is sooty black with pale gray edges to the feathers. Their breast, belly, and undertail coverts are dark gray; their flanks are dark gray with a faint olivaceous wash. Their iris is dark chestnut, their

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

black or dark gray, their

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

bluish gray with a black tip, and their legs and feet dark gray.

Distribution and habitat

The Apurimac spinetail has a very small range in south-central Peru, on the slopes of Ampay, a large mountain southwest of the Apurimac River. Much, but not all, of its known area of occurrence is within Ampay National Sanctuary. It inhabits

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

, humid ''

Podocarpus ''Podocarpus'' () is a genus of conifers, the most numerous and widely distributed of the podocarp family, the Podocarpaceae. ''Podocarpus'' species are evergreen shrubs or trees, usually from tall, known to reach at times. The cones have ...

'' forest, and regrowing vegetation in clearings and landslide scars. It favors dense understory and stands of ''

Chusquea ''Chusquea'' is a genus of evergreen bamboos in the grass family. Most of them are native to mountain habitats in Latin America, from Mexico to southern Chile and Argentina. They are sometimes referred to as South American mountain bamboos. Unl ...

'' bamboo. In elevation it occurs between .

Behavior

Movement

The Apurimac spinetail is not known to make any latitudinal or elevational movements.

Feeding

The Apurimac spinetail feeds on

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s, though details of its diet are lacking. It typically forages singly or in pairs and occasionally joins

mixed-species feeding 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 ar ...

s. It gleans prey from moss, lichen, small branches, and foliage, typically in dense cover near or on the ground.

Breeding

Immature Apurimac spinetails have been seen in March but nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.

Vocalization

The Apurimac's spinetail's song is essentially the same as that of Azara's spinetail, a "sharp nasal-like ''keet-kweet''" that is often repeated for minutes at a time. An apparent contact call is "a low chatter" and it also makes a "low-pitched, guttural/squeeky or churring trill".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

originally in 1988 assessed the Apurimac spinetail as Threatened and since 1994 has rated it Vulnerable. It has a very small range; its estimated population of 600 to 1700 mature individuals is believed to be stable. "''Podocarpus'' trees continue to be cut on the Nevada Ampay. Large numbers of people visit the mpay National Sanctuary..and disturbance is considerable. Grazing is an additional threat, with livestock farming commonplace even inside the protected area." It is commonly found in at least one highly fragmented forest, "indicating that the species may be tolerant, to a degree, of anthropogenic

habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological proces ...

and degradation".

Notes

References

External links

BirdLife International Species Factsheet
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1921950 Apurímac spinetail Birds of the Peruvian Andes Endemic birds of Peru Apurímac spinetail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot