Merida Tapaculo Scytalopus meridanus Scientific name definitions

10·5–11·5 cm; 13·5–16·5 g. A medium-sized grey tapaculo with unbarred or indistinctly dark-barred brown flanks. Male has dark grey upperparts washed dark brown, brown rump and uppertail-coverts, dusky brown wings, grey tail; throat and breast paler grey, belly grey but typically with silvery sheen, flanks and crissum tawny-brown with, at most, rather indistinct dusky bars; iris dark; bill blackish; tarsus brownish. Differs from very similar S. latebricola in slightly smaller size, paler plumage, silvery sheen on belly, much smaller bill that is not elevated basally; from S. griseicollis in slightly darker rufous flanks with a few bars, slightly darker belly. Female is slightly paler overall than male, more strongly washed with brown above, with tawny colour of flanks brighter. Juvenile is brown above, light brown below, crown, back and throat with narrow dark feather tips, rump and entire underparts with broader dark bars, upper flanks appearing scaled. Based on recent research, race fuscicauda (formerly treated at species level) does not definitely differ in morphology (specifically virtual lack of barring on posterior underparts) from nominate, as specimens with strong barring have been collected in Táchira, Mérida and Trujillo states at a wide range of elevations, with others without strong barring available from Mérida, Trujillo and Lara, across a similar elevational range, while birds with intermediate barring occur in all states, with no discontinuity in this feature or clear sexual differences; there are also no biometric differences.

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Undergrowth of humid forest and humid shrubbery at edge, not showing preference for Chusquea bamboo. Occurs at 1600–4000 m, although race fuscicauda perhaps found only at 1600–3245 m, and nominate mainly occurs above 2200 m.

Song c. 10 seconds long, beginning with a few spaced descending notes, then becoming a rapid trill of 17–22 (rarely, 7–14) upstrokes or up-downstroke notes per second, first at 2·8 kHz, rising over a few seconds to level at 3·2–3·9 kHz (first overtone; fundamental audible, sometimes barely so); trill sometimes has slight pause after each group of 2–4 notes. Scold 1–2 seconds long, an abrupt, rapid (22 per second) series at irregular intervals of 2–5 seconds, either at constant pitch with each note (first overtone) ranging from 3·5 to 5 kHz, or, after slightly lower-pitched introductory note, gradually falling c. 0·2 kHz; other calls include piercing “weedeet” of two similar notes at 5·5–6 kHz, and rising “caweet” of 2 notes at 3·5 and 4 kHz. Song of race fuscicauda appears to differ from that of nominate only in having shorter introductory notes.

Two nests described, built by same pair in Lara state (race fuscicauda), in Apr–May; both were globular in structure and consisted of moss, rootlets and decomposing leaves, placed in small rock crevices within a muddy rock wall, 15 m apart; one nest had the inside diameter and height 6·8 cm and 6·2 cm, respectively, and the outside diameter and height 10·5 cm and 8·5 cm, respectively. Clutch 1–2 eggs, cream-coloured, size, mass 4·07–4·38 g (n = 3), in the nest with two eggs laid eight days apart; incubation period unknown, as both nests were predated, but both adults incubated and nest attentiveness (percent time spent at nest incubating) averaged 83·4 ± 14%. No further information.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Common and widespread. Common in Páramos del Batallón y La Negra, Sierra de la Culata, and Sierra Nevada National Parks. Race fuscicauda is very poorly known, but has been recorded in Yacambú (IUCN Cat. II; 269 km²), Dinira (IUCN Cat. II; 453 km²) and Guaramacal (IUCN Cat. II; 215 km²) National Parks.