Seaside Cinclodes

The Chilean seaside cinclodes is 21 to 27 cm (8.3 to 11 in) long and weighs 63 to 67 g (2.2 to 2.4 oz). It is a large cinclodes with a straight bill. The sexes have the same plumages. Adults have narrow pale buff or whitish supercilium on an otherwise blackish brown face. Their crown and upperparts are smoky black or blackish brown. Their wings are blackish with a pale rufous band at the base of the flight feathers. Their tail is black; the outer three pairs of feathers have pale rufous or ashy-brown tips. Their throat and the sides of the neck are white, their upper breast smoky gray with small white or pale cinnamon dots, their lower breast smoky gray with light cinnamon streaks, and their belly plain smoky gray.Their iris is brown or dark brown, their bill blackish, sometimes with a gray base on the mandible, and their legs and feet brownish gray to blackish. There is some hint that the species' plumage is clinal, with northern birds being somewhat paler than southern ones.

The Chilean seaside cinclodes is found along the Chilean coast from the Arica y Parinacota Region south to the Los Ríos Region, and on several nearshore islands. It inhabits the intertidal zone where it greatly favors rocks.

The sister Chilean and Peruvian seaside cinclodes are the only passerines that forage at the ocean's surf line. The Chilean seaside cinclodes forages singly or in pairs in the intertidal zone and adjacent sandy areas. It feeds on aquatic invertebrates such as small crabs and other crustaceans, marine worms, small bivalves and snails, limpets, and insects, and also on small fish.