Sooty-fronted Spinetail

About the Sooty-fronted Spinetail

The sooty-fronted spinetail (Synallaxis frontalis) is a species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The sooty-fronted spinetail's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World treat it as monotypic. The Clements taxonomy recognizes two subspecies, the nominate S. f. frontalis (Pelzeln, 1859) and S. f. fuscipennis" (Berlepsch, 1907). A subpopulation in Bolivia's Cochabamba Department might be separable as a subspecies.

This article follows the no-subspecies model. The sooty-fronted spinetail is 14 to 16 cm (5.5 to 6.3 in) long and weighs 11 to 17 g (0.39 to 0.60 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a thin brownish line through the eye on an otherwise brownish gray face. Their forecrown ("front") is dark gray-brown, their hindcrown and nape dark rufous, and their back, rump and uppertail coverts brown with a rufescent tinge. Their wing coverts are dark rufous and their flight feathers tawny-rufous with dusky tips. Their tail is dark rufous... Wikipedia →