Streaked Tuftedcheek (Pseudocolaptes boissonneautii) [XC532361]
by Sergio C\u00f3rdoba-C\u00f3rdoba (Colecci\u00f3n de Sonidos Ambientales - Instituto Humboldt) from Vereda Carrizal, Sisavita, Colombia (?)
Streaked Tuftedcheek (Pseudocolaptes boissonneautii) [XC260664]
by Mitch Lysinger from Napo: upper Cordillera de los Huacamayos, Ecuador (call)
Subspecies
Genus has no obvious close relatives. Placement near Berlepschia based on bill shape and other morphological characters associated with climbing and probing, all possibly due to convergence; somewhat similar in general facial pattern and distinctive malar tufts to some Cinclodes, traditionally assumed to be distantly related.
Forms a superspecies with Buffy Tuftedcheek (Pseudocolaptes lawrencii) and sometimes treated, with some justification, as conspecific. In plumage colour, subspecies auritus of Buffy Tuftedcheek (Pseudocolaptes lawrencii) and that species are in many ways more similar to each other than either is to nominate subspecies of present species; in addition, verbal descriptions of voice equivocal, and formal comparison of sonagrams may provide data for re-evaluation of taxonomy.
Proposed subspecies orientalis, from Ecuador, is a synonym of oberholseri; intermedianus possibly indistinguishable from latter, quantitative study needed. Proposed subspecies pallidus, from north-western Peru, described as paler below and having reduced back streaking, but these supposed characters do not distinguish it from nearby medianus. In Peru, allocation of San Martín and La Libertad populations to auritus is tentative, and specimens from Ayacucho and Cuzco show signs of intermediacy in colour of malar tuft and rump between that subspecies and carabayae; also, latter possibly shows trend towards increasing dark scalloping on belly and darker rump colour farther south, but larger samples needed.
The following 10 subspecies are recognised:
meridae Hartert & Goodson, 1917 - Perijá Mts and Andes of north-western Venezuela (Trujillo, Mérida, Táchira) and north-eastern Colombia (eastern Andes south to Boyacá).
striaticeps Hellmayr & Seilern, 1912 - Coastal ranges of northern Venezuela (Yaracuy, and Carabobo east to Miranda).
boissonneautii (Lafresnaye, 1840) - Andes of Colombia (western and central ranges, and eastern range southern from Cundinamarca).
oberholseri Cory, 1919 - Andes of Ecuador (both slopes).
intermedianus Chapman, 1923 - Andes of north-western Peru (Piura, north-western Cajamarca).
medianus Hellmayr, 1919 - Northern Peruvian Andes south of R Marañón (southern Cajamarca, and Amazonas south to San Martín).
auritus (Tschudi, 1844) - Andes of central Peru (La Libertad south to northern Puno).
carabayae Zimmer, JT, 1936 - Andes from southern Peru (southern Puno) south to central Bolivia (east to western Santa Cruz).
orientalis (Lafresnaye, 1840) - Andes of southern Ecuador.
pallidus Zimmer, JT, 1935 - Andes of north-western Peru (Cajamarca).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet