Cordilleran Canastero

The cordilleran canastero is 15 to 16 cm (5.9 to 6.3 in) long and weighs 13 to 22 g (0.46 to 0.78 oz). It is one of the smaller canasteros. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies A. m. modesta have a narrow light buff-brown supercilium, dark brownish lores, brownish ear coverts, and a whitish buff-brown malar region with darker brown streaks. Their crown, nape, back, rump, and uppertail coverts are dull dark brown, though the back is paler and sandier in the southern part of the species' range. Their forehead has indistinct blackish spots and their rump and uppertail coverts have a rufescent tinge. Their wing coverts are dark brownish with chestnut-rufous edges, the greater covers dark brownish with fulvous or tawny edges, and their flight feathers dark fuscous with rufous bases. Their central pair of tail feathers are pointed and dark fuscous with rufous outer webs. The rest of their tail feathers have increasing amounts of rufous to the outermost, which are almost entirely that color. Their chin and upper throat are pale brownish with an orange-rufous patch in the center, their lower throat and upper breast whitish gray-brown with darker streaks, their lower breast and belly pale brown, and their flanks and undertail coverts pale brown with a rufescent tinge. …

The subspecies of the cordilleran canastero are found thus:

A. m. proxima: Andes of central and southern Peru from the Department of Junín to the Department of Cuzco A. m. modesta: Andes of southwestern Peru and western Bolivia south into northern Chile and northwestern Argentina A. m. hilereti: Tucumán and Catamarca provinces in northwestern Argentina A. m. rostrata: eastern slope of Andes in the central Bolivian departments of La Paz and Cochabamba A. m. serrana: Sierra de Famatina in western Argentina's La Rioja Province A. m. cordobae: central Argentina A. m. australis: Andes and lowlands of central and southern Chile and western and southern Argentina The cordilleran canastero primarily inhabits puna, temperate, and arid to semi-humid grasslands, often those with rocky outcrops and scattered small bushes. It also occurs in arid montane scrublands, Polylepis thickets, and dry open woodlands. In elevation it ranges from near sea level to 4,500 m (14,800 ft).

The cordilleran canastero feeds on arthropods. It usually forages singly but sometimes in pairs, gleaning prey mostly from the ground and to a lesser extent from low vegetation.