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Straight-billed Earth-Creeper
Upucerthia ruficauda

DESCRIPTION:
Straight-billed Earth-Creeper
Bandurrita de Pico Recto
Upucerthia ruficauda
Length: 195mm. Sexes alike. Bill brownish grey, pale grey at the base and halfway on the mandible; iris dark brown; forehead, crown, hind neck and upperparts rusty brown, slightly more rusty on rump; uppertail coverts reddish; tail reddish on central rectrices and outermost feathers and brown on inner vexillum. Lores and cheeks whitish ochraceous with rusty longitudinal spots, eyebrow, throat and foreneck whitish ochraceous. Breast, underparts and flanks whitish ochraceous against an ochraceous background, with ochraceous brown longitudinal spots; undertail coverts ochraceous; wing coverts reddish; secondaries and primaries reddish with brown terminal bar. Legs dark brown. Weight: 29g.
Habitat and behaviour: it inhabits slopes and rocky shrubby areas, where it may be seen mostly solitary, running lithely among the rocks. Upon danger it raises its tail and runs in a crouched position. Its voice is a strong hiss. It flies short distances and at low height. The nest is excavated in banks and generally two white eggs are laid.
Range: in Patagonia it is distributed from Neuquén to Chubut in the Andean and pre-Andean region. In the province of Chubut the authors collected specimens in the locality of Cushamen and further east in the Valle de los Mártires, near the Chubut River, on November 13, 1984. This specimen, judging by the lack of feathers on the belly, appeared to have been incubating.
Illustrated Handbook of the Birds of Patagonia
Kindness: Kovacs Family
 
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Photographs: Mariano Diez Peña


Birding Patagonia • Birdwatcing in Bariloche, Patagonia, Argentina and Chile.
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Photographs on the website: Mariano Diez Peña