Rufous-browed peppershrike

The rufous-browed peppershrike (Cyclarhis gujanensis) is a passerine bird in the vireo family. It is widespread and often common in woodland, forest edge, and cultivation with some tall trees from Mexico and Trinidad south to Argentina and Uruguay.

Rufous-browed peppershrike
C. g. ochrocephala feeding on a larva in São Paulo, Brazil
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Vireonidae
Genus: Cyclarhis
Species:
C. gujanensis
Binomial name
Cyclarhis gujanensis
(Gmelin, JF, 1789)

Taxonomy

The rufous-browed peppershrike was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it in the genus Tanagra and coined the binomial name Tanagra gujanensis.[2][3] The specific epithet is derived from the type locality, the Guianas.[4] Gmelin based his account on "Le verderoux" from French Guiana that had been described in 1778 by the French polymath Comte de Buffon in his multivolume Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.[5] The rufous-browed peppershrike is now placed with the black-billed peppershrike in the genus Cyclarhis that was introduced in 1824 by William Swainson.[6]

Twenty two subspecies are recognised:[6]

  • C. g. septentrionalis Phillips, AR, 1991 – east Mexico
  • C. g. flaviventris Lafresnaye, 1842 – southeast Mexico (except Yucatán Peninsula), Guatemala and north Honduras
  • C. g. yucatanensis Ridgway, 1887 – Yucatán Peninsula (southeast Mexico)
  • C. g. insularis Ridgway, 1885 – Cozumel (off southeast Mexico)
  • C. g. nicaraguae Miller, W & Griscom, 1925 – south Mexico to Nicaragua
  • C. g. subflavescens Cabanis, 1861 – Costa Rica and west Panama
  • C. g. perrygoi Wetmore, 1950 – central west Panama
  • C. g. flavens Wetmore, 1950 – east Panama
  • C. g. coibae Hartert, EJO, 1901 – Coiba (off southwest Panama)
  • C. g. cantica Bangs, 1898 – north, central Colombia
  • C. g. flavipectus Sclater, PL, 1859 – northeast Venezuela and Trinidad
  • C. g. parva Chapman, 1917 – northeast Colombia and north Venezuela
  • C. g. gujanensis (Gmelin, JF, 1789) – east Colombia and south Venezuela through the Guianas to northeast, central Brazil and east Peru
  • C. g. cearensis Baird, SF, 1866 – east Brazil
  • C. g. ochrocephala Tschudi, 1845 – southeast Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and northeast Argentina
  • C. g. viridis (Vieillot, 1822) – Paraguay and north Argentina
  • C. g. virenticeps Sclater, PL, 1860 – west Ecuador and northwest Peru
  • C. g. contrerasi Taczanowski, 1879 – southeast Ecuador and north Peru
  • C. g. saturata Zimmer, JT, 1925 – central Peru
  • C. g. pax Bond, J & Meyer de Schauensee, 1942 – central east Bolivia
  • C. g. dorsalis Zimmer, JT, 1942 – central Bolivia
  • C. g. tarijae Bond, J & Meyer de Schauensee, 1942 – southeast Bolivia and northwest Argentina

Description

The adult rufous-browed peppershrike is approximately 15 cm (5.9 in) long and weighs 28 g (0.99 oz).[7] It is bull-headed with a thick, somewhat shrike-like bill, which typically is blackish below and pinkish-grey above. The head is grey with a strong rufous eyebrow. The crown is often tinged with brown. The upperparts are green, and the yellow throat and breast shade into a white belly. The subspecies ochrocephala from the south-eastern part of its range has a shorter rufous eyebrow and a brown-tinged crown, while the subspecies virenticeps, contrerasi and saturata from north-western Peru and western Ecuador have greenish-yellow (not grey, as in the "typical" subspecies) nape, auriculars and cheeks.

The song is a whistled phrase with the rhythm "Do you wash every week?", but there are extensive variations depending on both individual and range. It is often heard but hard to see as it feeds on insects and spiders high in the foliage, though it has been observed to take small lizards as well.[8]

Behaviour and ecology

The nest is a flimsy cup high in a tree with a typical clutch of two or three pinkish-white eggs lightly blotched with brown. Like most vireos, the peppershrike ejects parasitic cowbird eggs.

  • A bird on its nest, 10 m above a stream near El Copey de Dota, Costa Rica, illustrating how cryptic the nests can be.
    A bird on its nest, 10 m above a stream near El Copey de Dota, Costa Rica, illustrating how cryptic the nests can be.
  • Illustration of C. g. contrerasi
    Illustration of C. g. contrerasi
  • Individual from Goiânia, Brazil
    Individual from Goiânia, Brazil

References
  1. BirdLife International (2018). "Cyclarhis gujanensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22705124A130370830. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22705124A130370830.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. Gmelin, Johann Friedrich (1789). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 2 (13th ed.). Lipsiae [Leipzig]: Georg. Emanuel. Beer. p. 893.
  3. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. pp. 105–106.
  4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1778). "Le verderoux". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 4. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale. p. 278.
  6. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2023). "Shrikes, vireos, shrike-babblers". IOC World Bird List Version 13.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
  7. Brewer, D.; Orenstein, R.A. (2010). "Family Vireonidae (Vireos)". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Christie, D.A. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 15: Weavers to New World Warblers. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. pp. 378–439 [415]. ISBN 978-84-96553-68-2.
  8. Delgado-V., Carlos A.; Brooks, Daniel M. (2003). "Unusual vertebrate prey taken by Neotropical birds" (PDF). Ornitología Colombiana. 1: 63–65.
  • ffrench, Richard; O'Neill, John Patton; Eckelberry, Don R. (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd ed.). Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2.
  • Hilty, Steven L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5.

Further reading
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