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Cabanis's Wren | Cantorchilus modestus
Vale winterkoning | Chivirín modesto
Cabanis's Wren is a plainly marked wren with a conspicuous white supercilium, brown upperparts and pale underparts. It lives in rank growth, tall grass and scrub and is common in much of its range, also close to people. The former, broader species has been split into three species; Cabanis's Wren in the current sense lives from southern Mexico to Costa Rica.
Voice
A loud, rapidly repeated whistled phrase, rendered in Costa Rica as chin-chi-ri-güí; pairs often duet. The call consists of dry, grating notes.
Recording: Bill Pyle — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
13–15 cm. Upperparts greyish brown to warm brown, tail finely barred black. Long white supercilium above a dark eye-stripe; cheeks pale with at most fine grey streaks. Throat and breast white, flanks and lower belly buff to rufous-brown. Bill fairly long and dark. Sexes alike.
Confusion species
Canebrake Wren Cantorchilus zeledoni (Caribbean lowlands from Nicaragua to western Panama) is larger and greyer, with a heavier bill. Isthmian Wren Cantorchilus elutus (south-western Costa Rica and Panama) is very similar and in the field best separated by range and song. Buff-breasted Wren Cantorchilus leucotis (Panama) is buff on breast and belly. Rufous-and-white Wren Thryophilus rufalbus is more rufous above and has a black-and-white striped face.
Habitat
Rank growth, tall grass, scrub, forest edges, hedgerows, plantations, young secondary growth and gardens, from the lowlands into the mountains. It forages low in dense vegetation for insects and spiders.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Southern Mexico (Oaxaca and Chiapas) through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua to central Costa Rica, mainly on the Pacific slope and in the interior. Endemic to the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Common in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, also in gardens and along roads with rank growth. The song is often the first and clearest clue.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Common and tolerant of human-modified landscapes with rank growth and scrub.
Scientific name
Cantorchilus modestus | (Cabanis, 1861)
Cabanis described the species in 1861 as Thryothorus modestus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Cantorchilus was introduced in 2006 by Mann, Barker, Graves, Dingess-Mann & Slater. Cantorchilus combines Latin cantus 'song' with Greek orkhilos 'wren': 'song wren'. modestus is Latin for 'modest, plain', after the unremarkable dull brown plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from San José, Costa Rica.