Rusty-belted Tapaculo Liosceles thoracicus Scientific name definitions

The Rusty-belted Tapaculo is in a monotypic genus Liosceles and is unlike any other member of the Rhinocryptidae in plumage and call. It is mainly restricted to western and central Amazonia from eastern Ecuador and southern Colombia south through eastern Peru and western Brazil. It is the only member of the tapaculo family that inhabits Amazonian forest. It is uniquely plumaged, with rusty brown upperparts, a brown and buff barred lower belly, and a white throat and breast with a patch of rusty-yellow in the center of the breast, from which it gets its name. It is found on the ground in terra firme forest, and frequents (and often walks on) fallen trunks or logs. Most often heard, its song resonates great distances through the forest, a series of 8-12 hollow “tewts,” starting off slow and widely separated, but speeding up at the end. Its vocalization is unlike anything else in Amazonian forest. Its nest is globular mass of moss and twigs constructed into the ground at the base of a root or trunk, not dissimilar to other members of the family.

19·5 cm; male 39–42 g. Adult plumage somewhat variable individually; forecrown grey-brown, crown and nape dusky brown, narrow white supercilium, dusky grey auriculars; back , rump and wings medium reddish-brown, wing-coverts with black subterminal band and often with a whitish central spot; tail grey-brown; throat white, streaked black and white at side; sides of breast grey, white centre of upper breast crossed by band of yellow and orange-brown (band somewhat variable in shape and colour), centre of lower breast white; flanks and vent closely barred black, brown and white; iris dark brown; upper mandible black, lower white; tarsus brown. Juvenile apparently very similar to adult. Race <em>erithacus</em> differs from nominate in having on average browner crown, broader deep breastband that is also deeper orange-brown in colour and with greater tendency towards pale yellow wash on breast below band; dugandi has rufous breastband that continues up onto sides of neck and throat.

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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.

Humid terra firme forest , often near treefalls, less often in flooded forest (várzea). Terrestrial; vocalizes from ground or from low branch. Lowlands to 600 m, occasionally 900 m; up to 1000 m in Peru.

Presumably sedentary.

Feeds mainly on terrestrial bugs (Hemiptera). Forages in pairs or alone. Slowly walks and hops on forest floor, often moving along fallen trunks; picks up bugs from the surface of the litter.

Song loud, a single, easily imitated whistled note at 1·2–1·3 kHz, repeated at intervals of 2–5 seconds, sometimes for minutes on end, and terminating in evenly descending series 4–5 seconds long of 9–12 notes at 1·4–1·3 kHz; descending series occasionally given alone. Calls include a repeated, sharp “cree” or “cree-cree” at 2·5 kHz with several audible harmonics, and also a “tchurc” at 1–1·3 kHz (resembling the call of a Chamaeza antthrush).

Juvenile collected in Oct in SE Peru. Single known nest was spherical, made of small twigs, grasses, lichens, mosses, small leaves and clumps of earth, lined mostly with soft grasses, and set into ground within root system of a small tree; opening was at top of the nest and led directly into the open. No other information.

Not globally threatened. Uncommon; locally fairly common or common. Occurs in several extensive protected areas, e.g. Cuyabeno Reserve, Ecuador, and Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve, Peru.