The plain-tailed wren (Pheugopedius euophrys) is a species of songbird in the family Troglodytidae. It has a mostly rufous body with a gray, black, and white striped head. It is found in the Andes of southern Colombia, Ecuador, and northern Peru. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. Plain-tailed wrens are so-called bamboo specialists and live almost exclusively in chusquea bamboo thickets. Like other wrens, its diet consists mainly of insects with some seeds and berries.
Taxonomy
The plain-tailed wren belongs to the order Passeriformes and the family Troglodytidae. Three subspecies are recognised:
P. e. euophrys (Sclater, PL, 1860) – southwest Colombia and west Ecuador
P. e. longipes (Allen, JA, 1889) – central east Ecuador
P. e. atriceps Chapman, 1924 – north Peru north of the Río Marañón
The grey-browed wren was formerly considered as a subspecies but is now treated as a separate species based on the distinctive vocalizations and some morphological differences.
Description
Plain-tailed wren at Bellavista, Ecuador
The plain-tailed wren has an unflattened wing of 64–71 mm and weighs from 20 to 36 g. The back, wings, and tail are rufous, with an olive cast on the back. The belly and other underparts are buffy-gray, and the head is gray with black and white stripes (superciliary, malar, and submalar stripes). The bill is gray and slightly decurved. The plain-tailed is large for a wren, but shows the characteristic short tail shared by the family. As the name suggests, it is unique among wrens because its tail lacks any barring.
Plain-tailed wrens on the western slope of the Andes tend to have heavy black spotting on the breast, while eastern-slope birds show no such markings.
The plain-tailed wren sings a rolling, repetitive song. Singing pairs of plain-tailed wrens coordinate such that the duets between males and females alternate syllables so quickly it sounds as if a single bird is singing. Research...
