Common Miner

The common miner is a medium-size member of its genus. It is 14 to 17 cm (5.5 to 6.7 in) long and weighs 20 to 34 g (0.71 to 1.2 oz). The sexes are alike. The nominate subspecies G. c. cunicularia has a pale brownish face with a wide whitish supercilium and a vague darker "moustache" and line behind the eye. It has a dull grayish brown crown and upperparts; the former has dark brown spots. Its uppertail coverts are dull grayish brown with pale brownish tips. Its tail feathers have buff-whitish bases and blackish ends with pale rufescent between them. The pale area is progressively larger from the innermost to the outer feathers and the outermost have almost entirely white outer webs. Dull brownish wing coverts with pale buff tips form distinct wing bars. Its flight feathers are dull brownish with a wide pale rufous band. Its throat is whitish, its breast buff-white with wavy brownish streaks, its belly pale buffy whitish with a pale cinnamon tinge on the flanks, and its undertail coverts whitish. …

The subspecies of the common miner are found thus:

Geositta cunicularia juninensis: Andes of central Peru's departments of Junín and Huancavelica Geositta cunicularia titicacae: Andes of southern Peru, Bolivia east to Cochabamba Department, northern Chile to the Tarapacá Region, and northwestern Argentina to Mendoza Province Geositta cunicularia frobeni: Pacific slope of the Andes in southern Peru between Arequipa and Tacna departments Geositta cunicularia georgei: coastal Peru's Ica and Arequipa departments Geositta cunicularia deserticolor: coastally from Arequipa Department in Peru south to Chile's Atacama Region Geositta cunicularia fissirostris: central Chile from coastal Atacama to Los Lagos regions and east to the Andean foothills Geositta cunicularia contrerasi: Sierras Grandes in Argentina's Córdoba Province Geositta cunicularia hellmayri: Andes of central Chile and southwestern Argentina (south of titicacae) Geositta cunicularia cunicularia: lowlands of extreme southeastern Brazil, Uruguay, eastern Argentina, and southern Chile south to Tierra del Fuego Though the International Ornithological Committee includes Paraguay in the range of cunicularia, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society has no records in that country. The common miner inhabits open landscapes including puna and temperate grasslands, arid lowland scrublands, …

The common miner forages singly or in pairs. It gleans food from the ground while hopping, not walking. Its diet is mostly arthropods including adult and larval flies and beetles; seeds are a minor component.