The Paramillo Tapaculo (Scytalopus canus) is a species of bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 in the Formicariidae

Formicariidae

The Formicariidae, formicariids, or ground antbirds are a family of smallish passerine birds of subtropical and tropical Central and South America. They are between 10 and 20 cm in length, and are related to the antbirds, Thamnophilidae, and gnateaters, Conopophagidae...

 family. It is endemic to humid highland scrub in the Cordillera Occidental in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. It has traditionally included the more widespread S. opacus

Paramo Tapaculo

The Paramo Tapaculo is a species of bird in the Formicariidae family. It is found at altitudes of in the Andes of northern Peru, Ecuador and southern Colombia . It has traditionally been treated as a subspecies of S...

as a subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

, but under the common name Paramo Tapaculo (a name now used exclusively for S. opacus). The two have different voices, leading to them being split

Lumpers and splitters

Lumping and splitting refers to a well-known problem in any discipline which has to place individual examples into rigorously defined categories. The lumper/splitter problem occurs when there is the need to create classifications and assign examples to them, for example schools of literature,...

 into separate species in 2010.

The Paramillo Tapaculo resembles other Scytalopus

Scytalopus

Scytalopus is a genus of small passerine birds belonging to the tapaculo group. They are found in South and Central America from Tierra del Fuego to Costa Rica, but are absent from the Amazon Basin. They inhabit dense vegetation at or near ground-level and are mainly found in mountainous regions,...

tapaculos, being overall dark grey, but lacking the brown lower flanks of the Paramo Tapaculo.

At present the Paramillo Tapaculo is only known from Páramo de Paramillo and Páramo de Frontino (also known as Paramo del Sol). It may occur elsewhere in the Cordillera Occidental of Colombia. The Paramillo Tapaculo is restricted to a narrow swath of treeline vegetation (scrub, stunted trees and Polylepis

Polylepis

Polylepis is a genus containing about twenty species of shrubs or trees native to the mid- and high-elevation regions of the tropical Andes. This group is unique in the rose family in that it is predominantly wind-pollinated. They are usually gnarled in shape, but in certain areas some trees are...

woodland) situated between montane forest and Páramo

Páramo

The term páramo can refer to a variety of ecosystems. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as “all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline”. A more narrow term classifies the páramo according to its regional placement - specifically located in “the northern Andes...

 grasslands that is often just hundreds of meters wide. While locally common, the estimated area of suitable habitat within the known range of the Paramillo Tapaculo is 3 km² in total. Only 0.1 km² is effectively protected by the Fundación ProAves

Fundación ProAves

Fundación ProAves is a nonprofit environmental organization in Colombia established in 1998. Its primary aims are to protects birds of conservation concern and their habitats across Colombia.ProAves has over 60 full-time professional staff...

 Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve

Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve

Colibri del Sol Bird Reserve is a 2,852 ha nature reserve in Colombia. It lies at the base of the Páramo del Sol volcanic massif west of the city of Medellín in the Department of Antioquia...

 (which also harbours the highly threatened Dusky Starfrontlet

Dusky Starfrontlet

The Dusky Starfrontlet is a hummingbird species in the subfamily Trochilinae.It is found only at high altitudes in the Cordillera Occidental of Colombia, and was first discovered on Páramo de Frontino...

 and Fenwick's Antpitta

Fenwick's Antpitta

Grallaria fenwickorum or Grallaria urraoensis, known in English as Fenwick's Antpitta, the Urrao Antpitta or the Antioquia Antpitta, is a small, highly threatened species of bird found in the understorey of cloud forest in the Andean highlands of Colombia. Its description has caused considerable...

). Páramo de Paramillo is a national park, but very poorly protected.

The Paramillo Tapaculo has not been assessed by IUCN. Given the estimated extent of occurrence and observed decline in the extent and quality of habitat, the Paramillo Tapaculo probably warrants IUCN Critically Endangered

Critically Endangered

Critically Endangered is the highest risk category assigned by the IUCN Red List for wild species. Critically Endangered means that a species' numbers have decreased, or will decrease, by 80% within three generations....

status with immediate efforts to assess its population and implement actions to assist its survival.