Fulvous-dotted Treerunner Margarornis stellatus Scientific name definitions

Also known as Star-chested Treerunner, the Fulvous-dotted Treerunner is a rare Furnariid of mid-elevation Andean forests in western Colombia and Ecuador.  It is small and predominately rufous, with a short, straight bill and a white throat, with small streaks of white spots edged in black running from the white throat down on to the breast, and a weakly contrasting pale supercilium.  The Pearled Treerunner is similar overall, but is more heavily spotted below and has a more obviously contrasting supercilium.  Fulvous-dotted Treerunners feed by creeping along tree trunks and branches by probing moss and other hanging vegetation.

13–14 cm; 21–22 g. Has broad but ill-defined supercilium dull rufescent brownish, auriculars dull reddish-brown, moustachial area more rufescent, crown dark reddish-brown, upperparts slightly paler; wing-coverts reddish-brown, primary coverts dark fuscous, remiges dark fuscous with dark rufescent edges; tail graduated, rectrices stiffened basally, lacking or almost lacking barbs for distal 1–6 mm, shafts of central pairs curving slightly downwards and inwards, colour dark reddish-brown; throat mostly whitish, upper breast strikingly patterned, a few rows of broad whitish spots outlined in blackish followed by several rows of smaller elongate whitish spots more conspicuously outlined, set on rufous-brown background, spots becoming smaller and vanishing into rufous-brown on lower breast, belly, flanks and undertail-coverts; iris dark brown; upper mandible horn to whitish-horn with browner base and culmen, lower mandible horn; tarsus and toes greyish to brownish. Sexes alike. Juvenile undescribed.

W & C Andes of Colombia (S from S Chocó, and in Antioquia) and W Ecuador (S to Pichincha; old record from Chimborazo (1 Ridgely, R. S., and P. J. Greenfield (2001). The Birds of Ecuador. Volumes 1 and 2. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, USA. Close ) ).

Arthropods; Lepidoptera larvae 15 cm long recorded in diet. Forages singly or in pairs, usually in mixed-species flocks, from mid-storey to subcanopy. Hitches and clambers up or along branches; often forages upside-down acrobatically on undersides of branches, often uses tail for support. Gleans items from moss, epiphytes (including bromeliads) and bark, occasionally from leaves.

Undescribed; evidently seldom vocalizes.