Cactus Canastero

The cactus canastero is 13 to 14 cm (5.1 to 5.5 in) long and weighs 16 to 19 g (0.56 to 0.67 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a pale buff supercilium, fuscous lores and stripe behind the eye, and dull buff ear coverts. Their crown and upperparts are uniform plain dull brown. Their wing coverts are mostly dull rufous and their flight feathers dull fuscous with a rufous patch that shows as a band on the closed wing. Their tail's central pair of feathers are brown, the next two pairs dull dark fuscous with tawny edges on the outer webs, the next pair rufous with dark fuscous edges near their base, and the outer two pairs almost entirely rufous. Their chin and center of their throat are pale orange-tawny; their breast and the rest of their underparts are pale buff. Their iris is brown, their maxilla black to gray, their mandible blue-gray with a blackish tip, and their legs and feet gray-brown to black.

The cactus canastero is found on the west slope of the Andes in Peru, in the Department of La Libertad and then from the Department of Lima south to the Department of Arequipa. It inhabits arid montane scrublands with scattered bushes and columnar cacti. In elevation it ranges between 50 and 2,500 m (160 and 8,200 ft).

Little is known about the diet or feeding behavior of the cactus canastero. It is usually seen singly or in pairs and is believed to glean arthropods from the ground, rocks, cacti, and maybe low vegetation.