Streaked tuftedcheek

The streaked tuftedcheek (Pseudocolaptes boissonneautii) is a passerine bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

The streaked tuftedcheek is 20 to 22 cm (7.9 to 8.7 in) long and weighs 37 to 62 g (1.3 to 2.2 oz). It is a rather large and strongly patterned ovenbird. The sexes' plumages are alike but the female of most subspecies has a significantly longer bill than the male. The species' most distinctive feature is its namesake tuft of almost pure white feathers that flare on the side of the neck. Adults of the nominate subspecies P. b. boissonneautii have a buff-whitish supercilium, blackish brown lores and ear coverts, and white cheeks. Their crown is blackish brown with many thin buff streaks, their hindneck and upper back similar with wider pale buff streaks, and the rest of their back rufescent brown. Their rump and uppertail coverts are bright chestnut rufous and their tail bright rufous. Their wings are blackish brown with pale rufous edges and tips on the coverts. Their secondaries have rufous edges at their base and their tertials are mostly rufous. Their throat is white, their breast a pale golden buff with dark brown feather edges that give a scaly look, and the rest of their underparts unmarked rufous that darkens to the undertail coverts. Their iris is brown to dark brown, their maxilla black, their mandible grayish white to silvery with a blackish upper third, and their legs and feet gray to slate. Juveniles have a much shorter bill than adults, an unmarked black crown, dense black scallop markings on the breast, and rich rufous belly and flanks.

The other subspecies of the streaked tuftedcheek differ from the nominate and each other thus:

P. b. striaticeps, less scaling on the breast and duller underparts than the nominate

P. b. meridae, little or no black edges on neck and breast feathers

P. b. oberholseri, darker crown and heavier black edges on neck and breast feathers than nominate

P. b. intermedianus, like oberholseri with heavier markings on its back

P. b. medianus, yellowish tinge on throat

P. b. auritus, like medianus but little difference in bill length between the sexes

P. b. carabayae, like auritus but smaller, with blacker back and darker more chestnut rump