Common Miner

About the Common Miner

The common miner (Geositta cunicularia) is a passerine bird in the subfamily Sclerurinae, the leaftossers and miners, of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay.

Taxonomists assign these nine subspecies to the common miner: Geositta cunicularia juninensis Taczanowski, 1884 Geositta cunicularia titicacae Zimmer, JT, 1935 Geositta cunicularia frobeni (Philippi & Landbeck, 1864) Geositta cunicularia georgei Koepcke, 1965

Geositta cunicularia deserticolor Hellmayr, 1924 Geositta cunicularia fissirostris (Kittlitz, 1835) – the type species of the genus. G. c. contrerasi Nores & Yzurieta, 1980 G. c. hellmayri Peters, JL, 1925 G. c. cunicularia (Vieillot, 1816)

Subspecies G. c. juninensis, G. c. titicacae, and G. c. frobeni might instead be members of a separate species. Subspecies G. c. georgei and G. c. deserticolor might also be members of another separate species. Among members of genus Geositta, the common miner is most closely related to the puna miner (Geositta punensis).

The common miner is a medium-size member of its genus. It is 14 to 17 cm (5.5 to 6.7 in) long and weighs... Wikipedia →