Scaly-throated leaftosser facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Scaly-throated leaftosser
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Furnariidae
Genus:	Sclerurus
Species:	S. guatemalensis
Binomial name
Sclerurus guatemalensis (Hartlaub, 1844)
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The scaly-throated leaftosser (Sclerurus guatemalensis) is a small bird found in warm, wet forests. It belongs to the ovenbird family called Furnariidae. You can find this bird in Mexico, most of Central America, and parts of Colombia and Ecuador. It gets its name from the special pattern on its throat feathers, which look a bit like scales.

About the Scaly-throated Leaftosser

How Scientists Classify It

Scientists group living things using a system called taxonomy. This helps them understand how different species are related. The scaly-throated leaftosser has three slightly different types, called subspecies. They are S. g. guatemalensis, S. g. salvini, and S. g. ennosiphyllus. This bird is closely related to the black-tailed leaftosser.

What It Looks Like

The scaly-throated leaftosser is about 16.5 to 18 cm (6.5 to 7.1 in) long and weighs around 35 g (1.2 oz). Both male and female birds look similar.

Their head and back are dark brown, and their tail is a darker brown. The feathers on their rump (the area above their tail) are a reddish-brown color. The most unique part is their chin and throat, which have whitish feathers with dark edges, making them look "scaly." Their chest is a reddish-brown with thin streaks. They have a long, thin beak, dark eyes, and dark legs. Young birds look similar but are generally darker.

The different subspecies have slight color variations. For example, S. g. salvini is a darker, more sooty brown, while S. g. ennosiphyllus is a bit paler and grayer.

Where It Lives

The scaly-throated leaftosser lives in humid lowland forests. It especially likes primary forests, which are old forests that haven't been cut down much. It also lives in mature secondary forests (forests that have grown back) and even some cloudforests in Ecuador.

You can find the main subspecies, S. g. guatemalensis, from southern Mexico down through Central American countries like Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Another subspecies, S. g. salvini, lives from eastern Panama into northwestern Colombia and western Ecuador. The third subspecies, S. g. ennosiphyllus, is found in northern Colombia. These birds usually live in forests up to about 1,200 meters (3,900 ft) high, but sometimes lower in Colombia and Ecuador.

Behavior and Life

Movement

The scaly-throated leaftosser stays in the same area all year round. It does not migrate.

What It Eats

This bird spends most of its time on the ground, looking for food. It hops around, flipping aside leaves and pecking at leaf litter and rotting logs. It mainly eats insects and other small creatures without backbones, like worms. It usually forages alone or in pairs, but sometimes it joins groups of different bird species that are also looking for food.

Reproduction and Life Cycle

Scaly-throated leaftossers usually nest between February and May in Central America. They build their nests in a tunnel that they dig, often in a stream bank or in the dirt around the roots of a fallen tree. Both the male and female bird help dig the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, they make a small, shallow cup out of plant material for the eggs.

They usually lay two eggs. The parents take turns sitting on the eggs for at least 21 days until they hatch. The young birds leave the nest about 14 to 15 days after hatching. Both parents also help feed the baby birds.

Sounds and Calls

The scaly-throated leaftosser has a beautiful song! People describe it as a "clear trill" or a "descending series of accented whistles." It can also sound like a "slightly laughing, rippling series of 7-12 or more sharp, slightly liquid week or swee notes."

Its calls are also interesting. They can be a "piercing wheek", a "sharp, sometimes metallic pick or zick", or even a "sharp, explosive squeak! or sweeik."

Status and Conservation

The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) has assessed the scaly-throated leaftosser as a species of "Least Concern." This means that, for now, it's not considered to be in immediate danger of disappearing. It lives across a large area, and its population is estimated to be between 20,000 and 50,000 adult birds.

However, the number of these birds is thought to be decreasing. The main threats to the scaly-throated leaftosser are logging (cutting down trees in mature forests) and changing forest land into areas for agriculture (farming) and raising livestock (farm animals). In Mexico, authorities consider this bird to be "Threatened."