Yellow-chinned Spinetail

About the Yellow-chinned Spinetail

The yellow-chinned spinetail (Certhiaxis cinnamomeus) is a passerine bird found in the tropical New World from Trinidad and Colombia south to Argentina and Uruguay. It is a member of the South American ovenbird family Furnariidae.

The yellow-chinned spinetail was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the treecreepers in the genus Certhia and coined the binomial name Certhia cinnamomea. The specific epithet is from Modern Latin cinnamomeus meaning "cinnamon-coloured". Gmelin based his description on the "Cinnamon creeper" that had been described in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham. Latham had examined a specimen in the British Museum. Latham did not specify the origin of the specimen but in 1902 Hans von Berlepsch and Ernst Hartert designated the type locality as Cayenne. The yellow-chinned spinetail is now placed with the red-and-white spinetail in the genus Certhiaxis that was introduced in 1844 by the French naturalist René Lesson.

Eight subspecies are recognised: C. c. fuscifrons (Madarász, G, 1913) – north Colombia C. c. marabinus... Wikipedia →