Ocellated Tapaculo Acropternis orthonyx Scientific name definitions

This large, distinctively patterned Tapaculo is found mostly above 2,500m in humid and wet forests, foraging on or near the ground in bamboo thickets. The Ocellated Tapaculo is mostly black, with white teardrops on the tips of its contour feathers and wing coverts. The face (including the forehead and throat), uppertail coverts and rear flanks are dark rufescent. It is uncommon to very locally common from Venezuela through Ecuador, on both slopes of the Andes, and has been found with increased frequency over a larger range since the discovery of its distinctive, down-slurred song in the late 1980s. It forages with elongated, dagger-like hindclaws by hopping with both feet and scraping ground to search for unearthed insect prey.

21·5 cm; male 90–100 g, female 81–89 g. Adult has lores, forecrown, throat and sides of neck and head orange-chestnut, crown, back and wing-coverts black, crown spotted with buff, rest white-spotted, rump and uppertail-coverts orange-chestnut; remiges dark brown, narrowly edged reddish-brown; tail dusky brown; underparts black, mixed with dark rufescent brown and spotted with white, lower flanks and vent chestnut, centre of belly dark olive-brown; iris brown; bill laterally compressed, but culmen flat and forming narrow “plate” along top of bill, upper mandible grey, lower dusky grey; tarsus dark grey-brown; claw of hallux extremely long , c. 25 mm, and straight. Juvenile is similar to adult, but rufous of head replaced by blackish, underparts without spots, and feathers of breast and upper belly have whitish shafts. Race <em>infuscatus</em> is very like nominate, but underparts blacker (less a mixture of black and dark brown).

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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.

Dense thickets of Chusquea bamboo, patches of Neurolepis cane in mossy Polylepis woodland, and dead tangles in undergrowth of humid montane forest . At 1900–3900 m, mostly above 2500 m.

Presumably sedentary.

Recorded food items include insects (e.g. beetles), a spider, and plant material. Walks, hops and runs through dense undergrowth and low tangles, occasionally on mossy branches 4 m up. Hops on ground; digs into litter with both feet simultaneously, making an awkward jump as it throws leaves backwards, presumably aided in this process by the long hind claw.

Song 0·4–0·5 seconds long, repeated at intervals of 2–5 seconds for several minutes, a piercing, single, falling “keeoo” , mainly at 2–3 kHz, falling abruptly to 1 kHz at end; sometimes answered by female with series 3–5 seconds long of 4–7 similar whistles. Call by both sexes 0·3–0·4 seconds long, repeated at 2-second intervals, a sharp “kee” at 1·5–1·9 kHz with 3–4 overtones.

Nothing known.

Not globally threatened. Considered to be generally uncommon to fairly common in Ecuador; rare in N Peru. Occurs in several protected areas, e.g. in Podocarpus National Park (North) and Pasochoa Forest Reserve, in Ecuador, and also in Guaramacal National Park, in Venezuela.