Blackish Tapaculo (Scytalopus latrans) [XC432480]
by Sue Riffe from Parque Natural Chicaque, Cundinamarca, Colombia (song)
Blackish Tapaculo (Scytalopus latrans) [XC250133]
by Niels Krabbe from Zamora-Chinchipe: near Besti\u00f3n, Ecuador (call, call female)
Subspecies
Scytalopus unicolor (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) has been split into Unicolored Tapaculo (Scytalopus unicolor), Blackish Tapaculo (Scytalopus latrans) and Trilling Tapaculo (Scytalopus parvirostris) following SACC (2005).
Formerly treated as a subspecies of Unicolored Tapaculo (Scytalopus unicolor), but differs vocally. Birds from western slope of eastern Andes in Colombia and from mid-elevations on Amazonian slope from Venezuela to northern Peru, although included in nominate subspecies, differ from it somewhat in vocalizations and in plumage coloration, and those from Ecuador, at least, are genetically closer to subcinereus. Subspecies intermedius not known vocally, and affinities to present species are uncertain.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
latrans Hellmayr, 1924 - Western and central Andes and western slope of eastern Andes in Colombia, and western and inter-Andean Ecuador south to northern Cañar (locally spilling over to upper Amazonian slope). Also at mid-elevations on Amazonian slope from western Venezuela (Mérida) south to northern Peru.
subcinereus Zimmer, JT, 1939 - Pacific slope from south-western Ecuador (Azuay) south to north-western Peru (Cajamarca, where possibly also on eastern slope of western Andes near Cutervo).
intermedius Zimmer, JT, 1939 - Central Andes of Peru in southern Amazonas.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet