Santa Marta Wren Troglodytes monticola Scientific name definitions

The Santa Marta Wren is a little known songbird of extremely high elevation scrub in northern Colombia.  Similar to Mountain Wren in appearance, this is a small dark brown wren with a buffy supercilium and fine black barring on the wings, tail, flanks, and undertail.  Apparently restricted to scrub/ shrub between 3200 and 4600 meters in elevation, the bird is known primarily from specimens collected in 1922 and very few recent observations due to its infrequently visited range high in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.  The Santa Marta Wren is considered to be vulnerable by the IUCN Red List due to habitat fragmentation within its highly restricted range.

Upper elevations in Santa Marta Massif, in N Colombia.

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED. Restricted-range species: present in Santa Marta Mountains EBA. Extremely rare and local (1 Luna, J.C. and Quevedo, A. (2012). Primera fotografía en su habitat y nuevo avistamiento del Cucarachero de Santa Marta Troglodytes monticola, especie en peligro crítico Conservación Colombiana. 17: 31-32. Close ). Known from collections made in 1922 in an area rarely visited by ornithologists, this species went unrecorded until a pair were seen in R Frío Valley in 2000–2001 (2 Strewe, R., and C. Navarro (2004). The threatened birds of the Río Frío Valley, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Cotinga 22:47–55. Close ). Subsequently, 17 individuals located in a targeted search in 2011 (1 Luna, J.C. and Quevedo, A. (2012). Primera fotografía en su habitat y nuevo avistamiento del Cucarachero de Santa Marta Troglodytes monticola, especie en peligro crítico Conservación Colombiana. 17: 31-32. Close ) and "several pairs" encountered in 2015 (3 Rojas, C.J. and Vasquez, C. (2015). Rediscovery of the Blue-bearded Helmetcrest Oxypogon cyanolaemus, a hummingbird lost for almost 7114 years. Conservación Colombiana. 22: 4–7. Close ). Total population presumed to comprise fewer than 250 mature individuals BirdLife International (2015) Species factsheet: Troglodytes monticola. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 30/03/2015. . Even in the early 20th century, degradation of its timberline páramo habitat may have been apparent (4 Todd, W. E. C., and M. A. Carriker (1922). The Birds of the Santa Marta Region of Colombia: a Study in Altitudinal Distribution. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 14:609 Close ), and burning and overgrazing continue to affect habitat in R Frío Valley (2 Strewe, R., and C. Navarro (2004). The threatened birds of the Río Frío Valley, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Cotinga 22:47–55. Close ). Known range is largely contained within Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park (IUCN Cat. II; 3830 km²); but, despite supposedly protected status of the area, forest destruction, overgrazing and burning continue almost unabated (3 Rojas, C.J. and Vasquez, C. (2015). Rediscovery of the Blue-bearded Helmetcrest Oxypogon cyanolaemus, a hummingbird lost for almost 7114 years. Conservación Colombiana. 22: 4–7. Close ). Not considered to be of conservation concern until as recently as 2005. There is an urgent need to search for any remaining populations of the species and to improve the protection of páramos within the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park.