Dark-winged canastero

The dark-winged canastero's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treat it as a monotypic species, though HBW uses the English name "Arequipa canastero". The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society and the Clements taxonomy treat it as a subspecies of the rusty-vented canastero (A. dorbignyi), which they call the "creamy-breasted canastero".[2][3][4][5] To further complicate matters, these taxa have plumage, morphological, vocal, behavioral, and nest structure characteristics that may better place them in the thornbird genus Phacellodomus rather than Asthenes.[6]

The dark-winged canastero was originally described in the genus Synallaxis.[7]

The dark-winged canastero is 14.5 to 16.5 cm (5.7 to 6.5 in) long and weighs 17.5 to 24 g (0.62 to 0.85 oz). It is a medium-sized canastero. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a light gray supercilium and an indistinct brownish line behind the eye in an otherwise dull buff face. Their crown, nape, and back are medium to dark brown and their rump and uppertail coverts rufous brown. Their wing coverts are blackish with narrow rufous edges and their flight feathers blackish. Their tail's outermost pair of feathers are rufous and the rest blackish. The center of their throat is orange rufous. The sides of their throat, breast, and belly are creamy white, their flanks tawny rufous, and their undertail coverts rufous. Their iris is dark brown to light gray, their maxilla black or dark gray, their mandible blackish (often with a pinkish base), and their legs and feet blue-gray to black. Juveniles have an entirely white throat and faint dusky bars or mottling on the breast and belly.[8][9]

The dark-winged canastero is found from southwestern Peru's Department of Arequipa south into northern Chile as far as the Tarapacá Region and east into western Bolivia's La Paz and Oruro departments. It inhabits arid landscapes, especially scrublands and nearby woodlands.[8][9]

The IUCN has assessed the dark-winged canastero as being of Least Concern. It has a large range but an unknown population size that is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.[1] It is considered fairly common to common over most of its range. "The primary effect of human activity on the [rusty vented canastero] is to reduce habitat area or quality, through clearing of habitat."[8]