freckle-breasted thornbird

The freckle-breasted thornbird was first described by Alcide d'Orbigny and Frédéric de Lafresnaye in 1838, from Uruguay.{{cite book |author=Hudson, William Henry |title=Argentine Ornithology: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Birds of the Argentine Republic (Complete) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=szBhX1Clh4QC&pg=PT289 |year=1889 |publisher=Library of Alexandria |isbn=978-1-4655-4745-3 |page=289 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180215162202/https://books.google.com/books?id=szBhX1Clh4QC&pg=PT289 |archive-date=2018-02-15 }}

The freckle-breasted thornbird is monotypic. However, what is now the spot-breasted thornbird (P. maculipectus) was long considered a subspecies of it, but they are not closely related. The freckle-breasted and greater thornbird (P. ruber) are sister species.Derryberry, E. P., S. Claramunt, G. Derryberry, R. T. Chesser, J. Cracraft, A. Aleixo, J. Pérez-Emán, J. V. Remsen, Jr., and R. T. Brumfield. (2011). Lineage diversification and morphological evolution in a large-scale continental radiation: the Neotropical ovenbirds and woodcreepers (Aves: Furnariidae). Evolution 65(10):2973–2986. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01374.x

The spot-breasted thornbird is {{convert|16|to|20|cm|in|sigfig=2|abbr=on}} long and weighs about {{convert|24|to|27|g|oz|sigfig=2|abbr=on}}. It is a medium-sized thornbird. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have an indistinct light brownish supercilium that extends beyond the eye and a very narrow dark brown stripe behind the eye on an otherwise light brownish face. Their crown is brownish chestnut with whitish spots, their back dull reddish brown, and their rump and uppertail coverts a slightly paler reddish brown. Their wings are mostly shades of brown with darker brown primary coverts and flight feathers with rufous edges and dusky tips. Their tail's central pair of feathers are dull rufescent brown and the rest dull rufous. Their throat is dingy whitish, their breast light brownish with pale streaks and dark rufous speckles, their belly light brownish white, and their flanks and undertail coverts dull gray-brown. Their iris is yellow to creamy buff or pale orange, their maxilla blackish to brownish, their mandible gray, and their legs and feet gray to greenish gray. Juveniles have a less rufescent back than adults.Remsen, Jr., J. V. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Freckle-breasted Thornbird (Phacellodomus striaticollis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.frbtho1.01 retrieved September 21, 2023{{cite book | last =van Perlo | first = Ber| title =A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil | publisher =Oxford University Press | date =2009 | location =New York | pages =218 | isbn =978-0-19-530155-7 }}{{cite book | last =de la Peña | first =Martín R. | last2=Rumboll |first2=Maurice| title =Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica | publisher =Princeton University Press | series =Princeton Illustrated Checklists | date =2001 | location =New Jersey | pages =Plate 64 | isbn =0691090351 }}

The freckle-breasted thornbird is found in northern Argentina between the provinces of Formosa and Buenos Aires, in Brazil from Paraná state south, and in most of Uruguay. It possibly also occurs in Parguay; the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society has only sight records from that country and so treats it as hypothetical there. The species inhabits a variety of landscapes, almost always near water. These include thickets along watercourses, gallery forest, the borders of marshes, and arid scrublands. In elevation it occurs from near sea level to {{convert|700|m|ft|abbr=on}}.

The freckle-breasted thornbird is a year-round resident throughout its range.

The freckle-breasted thornbird feeds on a wide variety of arthropods including beetles, grasshoppers, and scale insects. It usually forages in pairs. It captures prey by gleaning from the ground or from vegetation as high as the forest's understorey.

The freckle-breasted thornbird breeds in the austral spring and summer, roughly from August to February. It is monogamous and sometimes produces two broods in a season. It builds an oblong nest of thorny sticks that can be about {{convert|30|cm|ft|0|abbr=on}} high and {{convert|50|cm|ft|0|abbr=on}} long, and lines an interior chamber with soft plant material. It hangs the nest near the end a tree branch, usually {{convert|1|to|3|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} above the ground, and often over water. The clutch size is usually three or four eggs but can be two or five. The incubation period is about 16 days and fledging occurs about 12 to 13 days after hatch. Details of parental care are not known.

{{birdsong|url=https://xeno-canto.org/species/Phacellodomus-striaticollis |species=freckle-breasted thornbird}}

The freckle-breasted thornbird's song "starts with one to several ascending low notes, sometimes hesitating, followed by 3–4 loud, shrill descending monotonic notes that end abruptly, 'psep, psep, psep-kleek, kleek, kleek' ". Its alarm call is "a series of squeaky ticking notes".

The IUCN has assessed the speckle-breasted thornbird as being of Least Concern. It has a large range and an unknown population size that is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered uncommon to fairly common and occurs in several protected areas.

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• {{Commons category-inline|Phacellodomus striaticollis}}

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freckle-breasted thornbird

Category:Birds of Argentina

Category:Birds of the Pampas

Category:Birds of the South Region

Category:Birds of Uruguay

freckle-breasted thornbird

Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot