BIRD SPECIES

Song Wren

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Cyphorhinus phaeocephalus

The Song Wren is a chunky short-tailed wren with long bill.

It is a small bird, measuring about 5.12 - 5.91 inches and weigh about 24 - 25 grams.

Males have rich dark brown upperparts with faint darker barring on upper and middle back. Primaries and secondaries (wings) show barred orange-brown and dark brown outer webs.

Their short tail feathers are dark brown with blackish barring. Chin, throat and breast are warm orange- brown, whereas breast sides and belly are medium-brown.

Sometimes, there are some white feathers on belly. Crown is blackish brown, including the lores. Ear-coverts and the area behind the eye are warm orange-brown. The eye is surrounded by grayish-white to flesh- colored bare skin, with some blue tinge at rear of the eye.

Bill is black and a has compressed base and arched culmen. Eyes are brown. Legs and feet are grayish-brown.

Both sexes are similar, and the juvenile resembles adults, with variable amount of white on the throat.

CALL: Harsh and frog-like. Alarm call is a series of harsh “churr”.

SONG: A medley of harsh “chowk chowk-a-chowk chuck” sounds, interspersed with clear, melodious, rising and falling flute-like whistles sometimes varying in pitch.

The pair sings antiphonally, with each bird uttering its own motif of clear whistled notes.

The combination of both songs involves a complex pattern of repeated notes, mixed with harsher “chowk chowk” notes. But such song often seems to be the product of a single bird.

Feeds on terrestrial invertebrates such as small insects and spiders. It sometimes follows ant swarms.

Frequents the understory of humid lowland forest and wet second growth woodland.

Found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

Nest is boomerang-shaped. It is an untidy structure with a tubular, downwards- sloping side entrance, with an enclosed nesting chamber on the opposite side.

The female lays 2 - 3 white eggs with brown markings. There is no information on incubation and fledging period, but usually in Troglodytidae species, the incubation lasts between 12 and 20 days, and the young fledge 12-18 days after hatching.

SOURCES:
http://www.oiseaux-birds.com
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://ebird.org