Tapaculos | Rhinocryptidae

Tapaculo's | Tapaculos

This mainly South American family is represented in the region by three species of the genus Scytalopus: one in the montane forest of Costa Rica and western Panama, two in the mountains of eastern Panama near the Colombian border. Tapaculos are small, rounded, dark grey or brown birds with a short tail that is often cocked, short rounded wings and strong legs with large feet. A distinctive feature of the family is a movable flap over the nostrils. They fly little and poorly and creep like mice through dense undergrowth, ferns, moss and fallen trunks, searching for insects and other small invertebrates. Because they seldom show themselves and the species look very much alike, the voice is the main means of identification: loud, endlessly repeated notes or rattling series ringing out from the thickets. Several species have been separated only in recent decades on the basis of their songs. The nest is a ball or cup of moss and rootlets in a cavity, a hole in a bank or among roots, usually with two white eggs.