Plain Thornbird

About the Plain Thornbird

The plain thornbird (Phacellodomus inornatus) is a species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela. The plain thornbird was formally described in 1887 by the American ornithologist Robert Ridgway based on a specimen collected in Caracas, Venezuela. He coined the binomial name Phacellodomus inornatus. Its specific epithet is Latin meaning "plain" or "unadorned".

The plain thornbird's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC), BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW), and the Clements taxonomy follow a 2020 study that compared mitochondrial DNA sequences and treat it as a species with two subspecies, the nominate P. i. inornatus (Ridgway, 1887) and P. i. castilloi (Phelps Jr & Aveledo, 1987). The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society treats the two taxa as subspecies of the rufous-fronted thornbird (P. rufifrons).

The plain thornbird is 16 to 17 cm (6.3 to 6.7 in) long and weighs about 20 to 31 g (0.71 to 1.1 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies... Wikipedia →