Wren-like Rushbird Phleocryptes melanops Scientific name definitions

This furnariid is an interesting one, a clear example of convergent evolution with Cistothorus wrens, and perhaps some marsh-loving Old World Warblers. If you know the Marsh or Sedge Wrens (C. palustris and platensis respectively), then this furnariid will seem familiar. The tail does not cock, but its size, bill shape, coloration and habit of perching in emergent vegetation often with the two feet gripping on separate, parallel stalks clearly is like a Marsh Wren. The Wren-like Rushbird is strongly associated with “rushes” particularly Scirpus spp., while it sings from the rushes, and secures the large messy ball of a nest to them, much of the foraging occurs at the water’s edge. Wren-like Rushbirds tend to forage for arthropods either on the mud adjacent to the marsh, or while perching on emergent vegetation and gleaning food from the moist bases of the plants. One of the oddest aspects of this species is the song, it sounds like two pebbles or stones being tapped quickly together; this mechanical and monotonous song is interspersed harsh nasal trills. In the northwestern part of the range, including High Andean populations and coastal Peruvian and northern Chilean populations, the underparts are cinnamon, unlike the pale bellied birds of farther south and east. These darker birds also sing a quicker song that tends to be higher pitched than that of the pale bellied birds.

13–14 cm; 11–16 g. Small furnariid, remarkably similar in plumage to Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris). Male nominate race has prominent buff supercilium extending to hindcrown, loral area grizzled with greyish, dark brown postocular band, auriculars mottled dark brown, rear of malar area buff; blackish crown with broad, blurry brown streaks and faint pale feather shafts, poorly defined buff-brown collar less streaked, blackish back  with rich brown streaks and prominent whitish feather shafts; rich brown rump and uppertail-coverts, latter mixed with blackish; blackish wings, coverts with broad chestnut tips forming wingbars, remiges with chestnut and rufous edgings (conspicuous broad chestnut wingband  ); tail graduated, central rectrices rich brown, rest blackish-brown with buffy to tawny tips and (on outer webs of outer rectrices) edges, inner two feather pairs with c. 4 mm of distal shafts bare; throat  white, blending to buffy whitish on breast and belly, contrasting with dull brown sides and flanks; undertail-coverts mixed tawny-buff and white; iris brown to dark brown; bill  blackish to dark horn, sometimes pale pinkish or greyish base of lower mandible; tarsus and toes greyish-horn. Female is slightly paler than male. Juvenile  has crown feathers with rufous shafts, feathers of underparts  with narrow dark edges. Race schoenobaenus is significantly larger and longer-billed, brighter above and whiter below than nominate; <em>brunnescens</em> has paler, more heavily streaked crown, browner (less blackish) back, paler wingband, much paler and duller underparts; <em>loaensis</em> is like previous, but wingband darker, more chestnut, and rump, sides and flanks darker.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Freshwater marshes ; fresh or brackish marshes and lake edges with aquatic vegetation, especially <em>Scirpus</em> rushes; sea-level to 4300 m.

Mainly resident; some N migration by S populations during austral winter, but uncertain whether any parts of S range then abandoned.

Arthropods  . In a study in Chile, prey items delivered to nestlings were nymphs and naiads of Odonata (11∙4%), spiders (20%), naiads of Diptera (11∙4%), Oligochaeta (11∙4%), Acrididae (5∙7%) and Neuroptera (2∙3%) (5 Lara, J., Barrientos, C., Ardiles, K., Moreno, L., Figueroa, R.A. and González-Acuña, D. (2011). Biología reproductiva del trabajador (Phleocryptes melanops) en el centro-sur de Chile. Orn. Neotropical. 22(1): 121–130. Close ). Usually solitary. Gleans items from emergent or floating aquatic vegetation  , also occasionally from water and adjacent mud.

A repeated mechanical ticking , repeated several times per second  , sometimes for several minutes, often ending with trill like that of cicada (Cicadidae); Andean populations described as similar but with more strident tones. Calls include buzzy “zzt”, nasal “ik” or “eh”, and various squeaky notes.

Breeds during austral spring/summer; eggs in Sept and Jan in Peru, Oct and Feb in S Brazil and Sept–Jan in Argentina and Chile; nestlings in Sept in Peruvian Andes, Oct–Feb in Argentina and Oct–Jan in Chile  and Nov in S Brazil  . Presumably monogamous. Nest a globular mass c. 12–18 cm tall and 9–12 cm broad, of woven water-soaked grasses and fibres  cemented together with mud  , which dries to form hard outer shell, lined with feathers and hairs, side entrance near top usually protected by slight “awning”, attached with grass blades and cemented with mud to 3–7 reeds or Solanum malacoxylon stems 0·4–0·9 m (usually c. 0·8 m) above water, although greater plasticity in nest-site substrate has been observed in Argentina (6 Chiaradia, N.M., Cardoni, D.A., Pretelli, M.G. and Isacch, J.P. (2017). Breeding biology of the Wren-like Rushbird (Phleocryptes melanops) in the southeast Pampas of Argentina. Wilson J. Orn.. 129(1): 46–52. Close ). Clutch 1–4 bluish, oval-shaped eggs, averaging 19∙6 mm × 15∙5 mm in C Chile (5 Lara, J., Barrientos, C., Ardiles, K., Moreno, L., Figueroa, R.A. and González-Acuña, D. (2011). Biología reproductiva del trabajador (Phleocryptes melanops) en el centro-sur de Chile. Orn. Neotropical. 22(1): 121–130. Close ); incubation 16–18 days (6 Chiaradia, N.M., Cardoni, D.A., Pretelli, M.G. and Isacch, J.P. (2017). Breeding biology of the Wren-like Rushbird (Phleocryptes melanops) in the southeast Pampas of Argentina. Wilson J. Orn.. 129(1): 46–52. Close ); nestling period averaged 16 days in Argentine study (6 Chiaradia, N.M., Cardoni, D.A., Pretelli, M.G. and Isacch, J.P. (2017). Breeding biology of the Wren-like Rushbird (Phleocryptes melanops) in the southeast Pampas of Argentina. Wilson J. Orn.. 129(1): 46–52. Close ). In a study in Chile, mean clutch size 2∙5 eggs (n = 42), c. 60% hatching success and 46% final reproductive success, with known causes of nest failure flooding, starvation, and destruction and predation by rodents (5 Lara, J., Barrientos, C., Ardiles, K., Moreno, L., Figueroa, R.A. and González-Acuña, D. (2011). Biología reproductiva del trabajador (Phleocryptes melanops) en el centro-sur de Chile. Orn. Neotropical. 22(1): 121–130. Close ); in Pampas of Argentina, mean clutch size was 2·7 eggs (n = 63), 43% of nests abandoned during building and 38% predated, while 14% of nests (n = 33) were successful and 5% of nests were destroyed, with nest predation higher during the incubation (80%) than during the chick-rearing period (20%), overall success averaged 23% for the entire nesting period during the two breeding seasons under study, but 90% of active nests failed (75% depredated and 25% abandoned) when the wetland dried out (6 Chiaradia, N.M., Cardoni, D.A., Pretelli, M.G. and Isacch, J.P. (2017). Breeding biology of the Wren-like Rushbird (Phleocryptes melanops) in the southeast Pampas of Argentina. Wilson J. Orn.. 129(1): 46–52. Close ).

Not globally threatened. Generally common in appropriate habitat. Dependence on wetlands with emergent vegetation renders it somewhat vulnerable; many local populations greatly reduced or extirpated by habitat destruction. Andean and coastal Pacific races particularly vulnerable.