Thorn-tailed Rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda)

Thorn-tailed Rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda)
Chilean name: Rayadito

Thorn-tailed Rayadito, Torres del Paine, Chile, December 2005 - click for larger image

Chile
November / December 2005

The Thorn-tailed Rayadito is distributed in central and southern Chile and the adjacent extreme western edge of Argentina. On the mainland it is found in temperate forest such as Araucaria and Nothofagus beech. It is a member of the Ovenbird family.

It is very active and is often the core species in mixed species flocks. It has a black crown and eye-stripe separated by a broad cinnamon supercilium. Underparts are white on the throat moving to cinnamon on the belly although the subspecies fulva found on Chiloe is entirely cinnamon below. The most striking feature is its extraordinary tail in which each feather has a point at the tip.

It gleans its largely insect food from leaves and tree bark sometimes looking very much like an Old World Certhia treecreeper as can be seen in the final photo.

It nests in holes or behind the bark of the trees in the deciduous forests. The 6th photo shows a Thorn-tailed Rayadito emerging from its nest in the trunk of a very old and gnarled southern beech tree in the Parque Nacional La Campana near Santiago. A pair was constantly flying in to feed the youngsters inside.

Thorn-tailed Rayadito, PN La Campana, V Region, Chile, November 2005 - click for larger image

Thorn-tailed Rayadito, Viña del Mar, Chile, November 2005 - click for larger image

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