The streaked tuftedcheek (Pseudocolaptes boissonneautii) is a passerine bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
According to the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World, the streaked tuftedcheek has these eight subspecies:
P. b. striaticeps Hellmayr & Seilern, 1912
P. b. meridae Hartert, EJO & Goodson, 1917
P. b. boissonneautii (Lafresnaye, 1840)
P. b. oberholseri Cory, 1919
P. b. intermedianus Chapman, 1923
P. b. medianus Hellmayr, 1919
P. b. auritus (Tschudi, 1844)
P. b. carabayae Zimmer, JT, 1936
HBW spells the species' specific epithet boissonneauii (without a "t"), as that is how its namesake Auguste Boissonneau spelled his name. Other taxonomic systems retain the "t", though the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) is seeking a proposal to correct the spelling.
The Clements taxonomy adds two more subspecies, P. b. orientalis (Zimmer, JT, 1935) and P. b. pallidus (Zimmer, JT, 1935). The IOC and HBW include orientalis in oberholseri and pallidus in medianus.
What are now the buffy tuftedcheek (P. lawrencii) and the Pacific tuftedcheek (P. johnsoni) were previously considered subspecies of the streaked tuftedcheek. Though some authors had treated the three of them as separate species in the early twentieth century, major taxonomic systems did not begin doing so until the mid-2010s. The AOS and the Clements taxonomy were the last; they implemented the split in 2022.
This article follows the IOC/HBW eight-subspecies model.
Description
The streaked tuftedcheek is 20 to 22 cm (7.9 to 8.7 in) long and weighs 37 to 62 g (1.3 to 2.2 oz). It is a rather large and strongly patterned ovenbird. The sexes' plumages are alike but the female of most subspecies has a significantly longer bill than the male. The...
