White-whiskered Spinetail

The white-whiskered spinetail is 15 to 17 cm (5.9 to 6.7 in) long and weighs 14 to 16 g (0.49 to 0.56 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a wide white "moustache" and a wide rufous supercilium on an otherwise blackish face. Their crown is dark gray mottled with black and their nape, back, rump and uppertail coverts bright rufous. Their wings are bright rufous with dusky tips on their flight feathers. Their tail's proximal two-thirds is bright rufous and the distal third dark fuscous. Their chin is white and their throat black. Their breast and sides are bright rufous, their flanks slightly paler, their belly white, and their undertail coverts pale rufous. Their iris is dark brown, their maxilla black, their mandible black or blackish with some yellowish on its underside, and their legs and feet slate-gray to blue-gray. Subspecies S. c. atrigularis has a brown back, with no supercilium, grayish white flecks on the black cheek and chin, a dusky chestnut base to the tail, and a duller breast and more olivaceous flanks than the nominate.S. c. venezuelensis is paler overall than the nominate, with a white throat with a black band below it and a sharper delineation between the tail's colors.

The nominate subspecies of the white-whiskered spinetail is found in northern Colombia's Sucre and Magdalena departments. Subspecies S. c. atrigularis is found in the middle reaches of the Magdalena River valley in northern Colombia. S. c. venezuelensis is found in far northern Colombia's Cesar and La Guajira departments and east into northwestern Venezuela as far as Falcón and Lara states. The white-whiskered spinetail inhabits tropical deciduous forest, arid scrublands, overgrown pastures, and the edges of mangrove stands. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 300 m (1,000 ft) in Colombia and to 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in Venezuela.

The white-whiskered spinetail feeds on arthropods. It typically forages in pairs, gleaning prey mostly from the ground but also from twigs and branches up to about 2 m (7 ft) above the ground.