Plain xenops

The Amazonian plain xenops (Xenops genibarbis) is a passerine bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

The Amazonian plain xenops has a wedge-shaped, fairly stubby, and slightly upturned bill. The sexes are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies X. g. genibarbis have a conspicuous buff or whitish supercilium and a wide pure white malar stripe. Their upperparts are dull brown to rufous brown and unstreaked; their crown is darker and lightly streaked. Their tail is cinnamon with much black. Their wings are also cinnamon, with a wide ochraceous band on the flight feathers. Their throat is pale with olivaceous edges to the feathers. The rest of their underparts are plain dull grayish brown with some light buff spotting on the foreneck and breast. Their iris is dark brown, their maxilla dull black, their mandible dull grayish white with a dark gray tip, and their legs and feet bluish gray. The minimal streaking and the wide malar stripe set this species apart from other xenops.

The other subspecies of the Amazonian plain xenops differ from the nominate and each other thus:

X. g. ruficaudus, darker and buff-streaked crown, more olivaceous underparts, foreneck and breast more spotted

X. g. obsoletus, similar to ruficaudus with more olivaceous upperparts and foreneck and breast less spotted

X. g. remoratus, little or no crown streaking, duller above and below, ill-defined breast markings

X. g. alagoanus, very similar to nominate without streaks on crown