Cream-winged Cinclodes

The cream-winged cinclodes is 15 to 19 cm (5.9 to 7.5 in) long and weighs about 20 to 34 g (0.71 to 1.2 oz). It is a small cinclodes with a shortish bill. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies C. a. albiventris have a distinct light buffish white supercilium, dark gray-brown ear coverts with pale streaks, and a white malar area. Their crown and upperparts are rusty-gray. Their wing coverts are dark brown with wide buffish edges and their flight feathers dark fuscous with a cream band across them. Their tail's central feathers are dark brown and the rest blackish brown; the outer three pairs have progressively more milky-buff tips. Their entire underparts are whitish. Their iris is brown or dark brown, their bill dark brown to blackish whose mandible often has a paler base, and their legs and feet blackish to dark brownish. Subspecies C. a. yzurietae has darker brown crown and upperparts and a much whiter breast than the nominate. C. a. rufus has more rufescent upperparts, richer brown wings and tail, a more ochraceous belly, and more rufescent flanks than the nominate. C. a. riojanus has darker chocolate-brown upperparts and a browner breast than all the other subspecies. C. a. tucumanus has a deep buff wingband and a more reddish back and paler underparts than riojanus.

The nominate subspecies of the cream-winged cinclodes is by far the most widespread. It is found in the Andes from northern Peru south through western Bolivia and northern Chile into northwestern Argentina as far as La Rioja Province. C. a. tucumanus is found in Argentina's Tucumán Province. C. a. riojanus is found in the Sierra de Famatina in La Rioja. C. a. rufus is found in northwestern Argentina, in the Campo de Arenal area of Catamarca Province. C. a. yzurietae is also found in Catamarca, in the Sierra del Manchao. The cream-winged cinclodes inhabits a variety of open habitats, most of them grassy such as páramo and puna grassland, nearby agricultural fields, and also arid montane scrublands. It usually is found near water, especially bogs and streams, and is commonly seen around human habitations. In elevation it occurs between 2,500 and 5,000 m (8,200 and 16,400 ft) in Chile, mostly between 2,750 and 4,800 m (9,000 and 15,700 ft) in Peru, and usually above 2,100 m (6,900 ft) in Argentina.

The cream-winged cinclodes feeds on a variety of invertebrates including many insects and also seeds. It forages singly and in pairs while hopping and running on the ground. It probes and gleans from wet and dry ground, rocks, grass, dung, and shallow water.