Scaled spinetail

The scaled spinetail is a dark bird with scaly-looking undersides, a pale supercilium, dark brown upperparts and rufuous crown, wings and tail. The tail is graduated, with basally stiffened rectrices, pointed at tips.[3] Breast and belly are very pale buff-brown; the feathers of throat, breast and belly are edged dark olive, creating a coarse, scaled appearance.[4][5]

It measures 14–15 cm (5.5–5.9 in) in length.[3]

The scaled spinetail is endemic to the east Amazon River in Brazil, ranging from extreme eastern Amazonas, eastern to southern Amapá and Mexiana Island in Pará.[1]

It inhabits flooded tropical evergreen forest, restricted to the undergrowth and midstory of Brazilian várzea forests (seasonally flooded forests).[3] It ranges from 0–200 m elevation.[1]

Its diet consists mainly on arthropods. The species usually forages in pairs, sometimes with mixed-species flocks, searching for insects, which it typically gleans from the bark and riverine debris, from undergrowth to mid-storey. It hitches along small branches.[3] During the flood season, the spinetail remains in the middle of the canopy near the water line, looking for insects floating upstream on rafts of vegetation.[6]

The scaled spinetail has been classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is a poorly known and apparently uncommon species,[3] and the population is likely to be relatively small. Based on a model of future deforestation in the Amazon basin,[7] this species is expected to lose about half of its available habitat over three generations.[3]

The primary threat to this species is accelerating deforestation in the Amazon basin as land is cleared for cattle ranching and soy production, facilitated by expansion of the road network; it is thought likely to be particularly susceptible to fragmentation and edge effects.[1]