Thorn-tailed Rayadito
A species of Rayaditos Scientific name : Aphrastura spinicauda Genus : Rayaditos
Thorn-tailed Rayadito, A species of Rayaditos
Botanical name: Aphrastura spinicauda
Genus: Rayaditos
Content
Description General Info
Photo By Francesco Veronesi , used under CC-BY-SA-2.0 /Cropped and compressed from original 
Description
The thorn-tailed rayadito is approximately 14 centimetres (5.5 in) in length including the tail, and an average adult weighs around 11 grams (0.39 oz), with males being around 10 percent heavier than females. The most distinctive feature of a bird frequently compared to a tit is the long "thorn"-tail with twelve spiny rectrices, which gradually develops in juveniles as they mature. This thorn-tail is believed to be used, not to aid in climbing trees as in other funariids like the tit-spinetails, but to attract the opposite sex during courtship. The plumage of the thorn-tailed rayadito is brown with several black lines above and generally white below in the nominate subspecies Aphrastura spinicauda spinicauda, whilst in Aphrastura spinicauda fulva of Chiloé the throat is cinnamon instead of white and in Aphrastura spinicauda bullocki of Mocha Island the dorsal side is entirely brown without black lines and the throat is white. Typical voices of the thorn-tailed rayadito include: A loud trill An alarm call, described as a scolding "tsii...tsii...tsii" A softer repetitive trill "trrrrrreet" A chorus call used during the nonbreeding season 
Size
14 cm
Feeding Habits
Thorn-tailed Rayadito primarily consumes arthropods, especially Diptera and Hymenoptera, and pecks at ripe fruits from Berberis, Ribes, and Gunnera plants. It forages in pairs or groups, gleaning from foliage to canopy, and is often found in mixed-species flocks, serving as the nuclear species.
Habitat
The thorn-tailed Rayadito inhabits southern temperate forests, including primarily towering humid Nothofagus woodlands and surrounding secondary growth. Their habitat extends to arid lowland areas with shrubbery and tussock grasslands, particularly in regions with sparse tree vegetation such as island environments. They primarily dwell in coastal areas.
Dite type
Insectivorous
General Info
Behavior
Like most furnariids, the thorn-tailed rayadito is exclusively insectivorous, and like the tits of the northern hemisphere it searches bark and moss surfaces for small insects. In the non-breeding season from March to September it forms large flocks with other Furnariidae species, though generally it is so numerous as to outnumber all other species combined and in almost half of all cases rayaditos are the only species present: at other times white-throated treerunners, striped woodpeckers and fire-eyed diucons may complement them. Rayaditos themselves usually occur in the non-breeding season in flocks of four to seven; however in the breeding season from October to February they are strongly pair-territorial. Rayaditos are highly curious and fearless birds, and are inquisitive in the presence of humans in their forest habitat. They are adaptable to quite a wide range of forest types, from tall Nothofagus and Araucaria forests in the north to low subantarctic forests in the far south and relatively dry Austrocedrus forests in the east of their range. Rayaditos do not extend beyond the relatively dry cedar forest into the "scrub beech" further east, and generally do require corridors of considerable size if not so wide as many other endemic birds of Patagonian forests.
Species Status
Not globally threatened.
Scientific Classification
Phylum
Chordates Class
Birds Order
Perching birds Family
Ovenbirds Genus
Rayaditos Species
Thorn-tailed Rayadito 
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