Red-faced spinetail

Cranioleuca erythrops

Photo by Eduardo Letort (PBase)

Common name:
red-faced spinetail (en); arredio-de-faces-vermelhas (pt); synallaxe à face rouge (fr); curutié carirrojo (es); rotgesicht-baumschlüpfer (de)

Taxonomy:
Order Passeriformes
Family Furnariidae

Range:
This species occurs in three disjunct subspecies. C.e. rufigenis is found in the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama, C.e. griseigularis is found in extreme eastern Panama and along the Andes of western and central Colombia, and C.e. erythrops is found in the Andes of western Ecuador.

Size:
These birds are 14-15 cm long and weigh 13-20 g.

Habitat:
The red-faced spinetail is mostly found in moist, mountain rainforests, but also use rainforests at lower altitudes, tall second growths and tropical deciduous forests. They occur at altitudes of 150-2.300 m.

Diet:They often join mixed-species feeding flocks, hunting among tree branches, bark and epiphytes in search of invertebrates such as beetles, grasshoppers, roaches, caterpillars, spiders. They are also known to take the protein corpuscles produced by Cecropia sp.

Breeding:
Red-faced spinetails breed in March-July. The nest is a bulky ball, loosely made of grass, moss and pieces of epiphytes, with an entrance tunnel at the bottom, and placed hanging near the end of a branch, 5-12 m above the ground. There the female lays 2 eggs. There is no available information regarding the incubation and fledging periods.

Conservation:
IUCN status - LC (Least Concern)
This species has a relatively large breeding range and is described as fairly common. This population is suspected to be stable in the absence of evidence for any declines or substantial threats.