Short-billed Canastero (Asthenes baeri) [XC50726]
by Miguel Castelino from San Jose de Las Salinas, Cordoba, Argentina (song)
Short-billed Canastero (Asthenes baeri) [XC361128]
by GABRIEL LEITE from Colonia Lavalleja- Salto - R\u00edo Arapey Chico, Uruguay (song)
Subspecies
Suggested by some authors as being possibly sister-species to Lesser Canastero (Asthenes pyrrholeuca) on basis of plumage similarities. Others point out that voice, nest structure, plumage and tail morphology all indicate that it is part of a group, or possibly superspecies, formed by Creamy-breasted Canastero (Asthenes dorbignyi) and Berlepsch's Canastero (Asthenes berlepschi), probably with Chestnut Canastero (Pseudasthenes steinbachi) and possibly with Patagonian Canastero (Pseudasthenes patagonica). In some aspects of plumage, tail structure, behaviour, voice and nest structure, all are more similar to Phacellodomus (especially Streak-fronted Thornbird (Phacellodomus striaticeps)) and possibly better placed in that genus. Subspecies chacoensis and neiffi (latter originally described as a subspecies of Chestnut Canastero (Pseudasthenes steinbachi)) perhaps no more than extremes in clinal variation, and species possibly monotypic. Re-evaluation of geographical variation desirable.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
chacoensis Brodkorb, 1938 - Extreme south-central Bolivia (south-central Santa Cruz) and north-western Paraguay.
baeri (Berlepsch, 1906) - Southern Bolivia (eastern Tarija), western Paraguay, northern and central Argentina (Salta, western Formosa and western Corrientes south to eastern Mendoza, La Pampa, north-eastern Río Negro and southern Buenos Aires), extreme south-eastern Brazil (south-western Rio Grande do Sul) and western Uruguay.
neiffi (Contreras, 1980) - Western Argentina (north-western and central Mendoza, western Córdoba, northern and central San Luis).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet