Hudson's canastero

Asthenes hudsoni

Photo by Juan Maria Raggio (Internet Bird Collection)

Common name:
Hudson's canastero (en); joão-platino (pt); synallaxe de Hudson (fr); canastero pampeano (es); nördlicher flügelspiegelcanastero (de)

Taxonomy:
Order Passeriformes
Family Furnariidae

Range:
This species is found in south-western Uruguay and in eastern Argentina from Santa Fe to southern Buenos Aires. Also marginally into Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil.

Size:
These birds are 18 cm long.

Habitat:
The Hudson's canastero is found in temperate grasslands, including areas with tall wet grass such as Paspalum quadrifarium, sedges near wetlands, and seasonally inundated grasslands dominated by Spartina densiflora. They occur from sea level up to an altitude of 950 m.

Diet:
They are insectivorous, taking caterpillars, beetles, stink bugs, grasshoppers and ants, which they glean from the ground or from low vegetation.

Breeding:
These birds are presumed to be monogamous and nest in November-January. The nest is placed on or near the ground and the female lays 3-4 eggs. There is no available information regarding the incubation and fledging periods.

Conservation:
IUCN status - NT (Near-Threatened)
This species has a large breeding range and is described as uncommon to locally fairly common. The population is suspected to be experiencing a moderately rapid decline owing primarily to the on-going loss of habitat through land conversion for cultivation, livestock grazing and urbanization. The species is probably also susceptible to pollution.