Habitat
Subtropical and tropical dry forest and shrubland, subtropical and tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical and tropical high altitude shrubland. From sea-level - 3,100 m.
Stripe-crowned Spinetail (Cranioleuca pyrrhophia) [XC287699]
by Rosendo Manuel Fraga from Salta: Vaqueros, 1400 m, Argentina (song)
Stripe-crowned Spinetail (Cranioleuca pyrrhophia) [XC14583]
by Niels Krabbe from 5km east of El Tunal, Salta, Argentina (song)
Subspecies
Genetic data indicate that this is sister-species to Bolivian Spinetail (Cranioleuca henricae). Closely related also to Olive Spinetail (Cranioleuca obsoleta), which suggested by some as subspecies of present species. Varying degrees of similarity between them in south-eastern Brazil, Uruguay and north-eastern Argentina demonstrated in recent study as indicative possibly of past or current hybridization or perhaps independent variation. Further study is needed. All three considered by some to form a superspecies that also includes Crested Spinetail (Cranioleuca subcristata), Pallid Spinetail (Cranioleuca pallida), Creamy-crested Spinetail (Cranioleuca albicapilla), Line-cheeked Spinetail (Cranioleuca antisiensis) and Baron's Spinetail (Cranioleuca baroni), but genetic data suggest that at least the last two of those are not part of this lineage. Geographical variation clearly more complex than indicated by current taxonomy, but may be largely clinal, plumage becoming more greyish above and more whitish below towards south. Within populations assigned to nominate subspecies, variation in crown streaking evidently great, with streaking reduced in south-eastern Brazil but many birds elsewhere at least as streaked as striaticeps, and those from lowland southern Bolivia closer in appearance to nearby montane population of that subspecies but having undertail-coverts like nominate. Further study is needed.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
rufipennis (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1879) - Northern Bolivian Andes in La Paz (Tilotilo) and north-western Cochabamba.
striaticeps (d'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837) - Andes of central and southern Bolivia (central Cochabamba, western Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, Tarija).
pyrrhophia (Vieillot, 1818) - Southern Bolivia (lowland Santa Cruz and Tarija), western Paraguay, north-eastern and central Argentina (south to Neuquén, Río Negro and northern Buenos Aires), extreme south-eastern Brazil (southern Rio Grande do Sul) and Uruguay.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet