Spot-breasted Thornbird

The spot-breasted thornbird is 17 to 18 cm (6.7 to 7.1 in) long and weighs about 19 to 26 g (0.67 to 0.92 oz). It is a medium-sized thornbird. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a light brownish supercilium that extends beyond the eye and an indistinct dull brown stripe behind the eye on an otherwise light brownish face. Their crown is rufous-brown with whitish streaks, their back dull reddish brown, and their rump and uppertail coverts a slightly paler reddish brown. Their wings are mostly shades of brown with darker brown primary coverts and flight feathers with rufous edges and dusky tips. Their tail's central pair of feathers are dull rufescent brown and the rest dull rufous. Their throat is dingy whitish, their breast dark brownish with conspicuous white speckles, their belly brownish white, and their flanks and undertail coverts darkish gray-brown. Their iris is gray, their maxilla blackish to brownish, their mandible gray, and their legs and feet gray to greenish gray.

The spot-breasted thornbird is found from the Bolivian departments of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz south into northern Argentina as far as La Rioja Province. It inhabits dry to somewhat humid montane woodland (e.g. Alnus and Podocarpus) and scrublands. In elevation it mostly ranges between 1,000 and 2,500 m (3,300 and 8,200 ft) but occurs locally as high as 3,100 m (10,200 ft).

The spot-breasted thornbird feeds on adult and larval arthropods. It usually forages in pairs. It captures prey by gleaning from the ground or from vegetation as high as the forest's understorey.