Ochre-cheeked Spinetail (Synallaxis scutata) [XC710946]
by Brian Cox from Goi\u00e2nia, Goi\u00e1s, Fazenda Lageado, Brazil (song)
Ochre-cheeked Spinetail (Synallaxis scutata) [XC786948]
by JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA from Areia, Areia, Para\u00edba, Brazil (song)
Subspecies
Often placed with White-whiskered Spinetail (Synallaxis candei) and Hoary-throated Spinetail (Synallaxis kollari) in a separate genus Poecilurus, but no diagnosable differences from current genus. Considered by some to form a superspecies with those two, but differs substantially from both in colour pattern and tail structure. Plumage pattern suggests that it is more likely related to White-lored Spinetail (Synallaxis albilora). Whether darker subspecies whitii can be distinguished from extremes of adjacent populations of nominate subspecies, which varies clinally from north-east to south-west, or whether it is diagnosably distinct, merits investigation.
Proposed subspecies neglecta, from Ceará (Brazil), supposedly paler rufous above and whiter below, and proposed subspecies teretiala, from Serra dos Carajás, in southern Pará (Brazil), described from three specimens as smaller and whiter below than nominate, but neither is considered distinguishable.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
scutata Sclater, 1859 - Eastern and central Brazil (southern Pará and Maranhío east to Ceará and Bahia, south to northern Mato Grosso, southern Minas Gerais and northern Sío Paulo).
whitii Sclater, PL, 1881 - Southern Brazil (southern Mato Grosso), south-eastern Bolivia (Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, Tarija) and north-western Argentina (Jujuy and Salta, possibly also western Formosa, south to Catamarca).
teretiala (Oren, 1985) - Eastern Brazil (Serra dos Carajás in southern Pará).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet