Bird Guide

Many-striped Canastero vs Short-billed Canastero

Many-striped Canastero (Asthenes flammulata)

Many-striped Canastero

Asthenes flammulata

Small23 gGrassland

The many-striped canastero is 16 to 17 cm (6.3 to 6.7 in) long and weighs 17 to 27 g (0.60 to 0.95 oz). It is a large canastero and the most dramatically striped of them. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a buff-whitish supercilium on an otherwise dark brownish face with buff to whitish streaks. Their forehead is bright tawny-brown or rufescent brown with dark brown stripes that widen to become the brown crown with rufescent streaks. Their upperparts from back to uppertail coverts are dark brown with conspicuous pale buff streaks. Voice: The many-striped canastero's song is an "accelerating series of buzzy notes that initially rises in pitch, and towards the end smoothly changes into a stuttering descending trill tzee-tzee-tzee-tzeetzeetzetztztztzrrrrrrr". It typically sings from a perch atop a shrub, and sometimes two birds countersing. The song differs little among the subspecies.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Many-striped Canastero
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Song · Loja: páramo of Cordillera Las Lagunillas, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Francisco Sánchez Karste · CC BY 4.0
Short-billed Canastero (Asthenes baeri)

Short-billed Canastero

Asthenes baeri

Small18 gShrubland

The short-billed canastero is 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long and weighs 10 to 18 g (0.35 to 0.63 oz). It has a short and thick bill, and is more similar to the wholly unrelated little thornbird (Phacellodomus sibilatrix) than to other canasteros. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have an indistinct wide grayish supercilium on an otherwise dull grayish brown face. Their crown is dull gray-brown, their back a slightly grayer brown, and their rump and uppertail coverts gray with a brown tinge. Voice: The short-billed canastero's song is "a high-pitched, fast seep seep seepseepseep..., speeding up to and ending in a trill". Sometimes the introductory notes are omitted. It also gives a "series of short, buzzing 'pzzz' phrases.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Megustanlasframbuesas · CC0

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Many-striped Canastero and Short-billed Canastero.