Eye-ringed Thistletail

The eye-ringed thistletail is 18 to 20 cm (7.1 to 7.9 in) long and weighs 16 to 18 g (0.56 to 0.63 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a wide white eyering and dark brown lores on an otherwise chestnut-brown face. Their crown, back, rump, and wings are a darker chestnut-brown. Their tail is a more rufescent brown than the back; it is long and deeply forked with few barbs at the feather ends that give a ragged appearance. Their chin has a rusty or orange-rufous patch. Their throat and the rest of their underparts are gray with a paler belly and brownish-tinged flanks. Their iris is light gray to chestnut, their maxilla black, their mandible black or gray, and their legs and feet gray to blue-gray. Juveniles do not have the rusty chin; their belly is paler than adults' and their flanks brower.

The eye-ringed thistletail is found only in the Andes of Peru's Department of Junín. It inhabits the narrow ecotone of the upper edges of cloudforest and the elfin forest above it. Often the understory is dense with Chusquea bamboo. In elevation it is found between 3,030 and 3,710 m (9,900 and 12,200 ft).

The eye-ringed thistletail's diet and foraging behavior are not known in detail. It is assumed to feed mostly on arthropods gleaned in the understory from foliage, branches, and moss. It is usually seen singly or in pairs.