Ruddy Treerunner
Encyclopedia
The Ruddy Treerunner is a passerine
bird
which is endemic to the highlands of Costa Rica
and western Panama
.
This treerunner is found in hills and mountains from 1200 m up to the timberline, in forests and adjacent edges and clearings. It builds a large enclosed oval nest 25 m high in the crown of a tree on the underside of a thick branch. The nest is camouflaged with mosses and epiphyte
s and has a downward pointing entrance tunnel at its base. The eggs are undescribed, but members of this family typically lay two white eggs.
The adult Ruddy Treerunner is 16 cm long, weighs 18 g and looks like a small, short-billed woodcreeper
, but has soft, rather than rigid, tail spines. It has bright rufous upperparts and a white supercilium
. It has a white throat and otherwise tawny underparts. Young birds are almost identical to the adults. The call is a sharp tsit, and the song is a twittering trill.
The Ruddy Treerunner forages for large insect
s, spider
s and their eggs and larvae in mosses, plant debris, bromeliads and other epiphytes. It creeps along branches and up stems - but uses its tail for support less than a woodcreeper does. It is seen alone, in pairs, or as part of a mixed-species feeding flock
.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
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...
which is endemic to the highlands of Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
and western Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
.
This treerunner is found in hills and mountains from 1200 m up to the timberline, in forests and adjacent edges and clearings. It builds a large enclosed oval nest 25 m high in the crown of a tree on the underside of a thick branch. The nest is camouflaged with mosses and epiphyte
Epiphyte
An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...
s and has a downward pointing entrance tunnel at its base. The eggs are undescribed, but members of this family typically lay two white eggs.
The adult Ruddy Treerunner is 16 cm long, weighs 18 g and looks like a small, short-billed woodcreeper
Woodcreeper
The woodcreepers comprise a subfamily of sub-oscine passerine birds endemic to the Neotropics. They have traditionally been considered a distinct family Dendrocolaptidae, but most authorities now place them as a subfamily of the ovenbirds...
, but has soft, rather than rigid, tail spines. It has bright rufous upperparts and a white supercilium
Supercilium
The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head. Also known as an "eyebrow", it is distinct from the eyestripe, which is a line which runs...
. It has a white throat and otherwise tawny underparts. Young birds are almost identical to the adults. The call is a sharp tsit, and the song is a twittering trill.
The Ruddy Treerunner forages for large insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s and their eggs and larvae in mosses, plant debris, bromeliads and other epiphytes. It creeps along branches and up stems - but uses its tail for support less than a woodcreeper does. It is seen alone, in pairs, or as part of a mixed-species feeding flock
Mixed-species feeding flock
A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species, that join each other and move together while foraging...
.