Chestnut-capped Piha

Appearance

Overall the chestnut-capped piha is a dark grey bird with a notable chestnut crown on the upper nape and pale cinnamon-colored undertail coverts. The upperparts and wing coverts are a dark grey with paler fringes to most of the feathers. The flight feathers are a dark brownish grey with cinnamon-colored fringes on the secondaries and tertials.

Adult chestnut-capped pihas are small for pihas, measuring about 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 in) long and weighing between 69.4 and 72.2 g (2.45 and 2.55 oz).

Range and habitat

The chestnut-capped piha is endemic to the central Andes of Colombia. It is only found on the northern slope of the Cordillera Central mountains near the towns of Amalfi and Anorí in the department of Antioquia. Sixteen distinct populations are known from this area just east of the Nechí River Valley, with most of the populations being located closer to Anorí, likely due to more extensive habitat destruction over a longer period of time near Amalfi.

Although several reserves have been set up to protect portions of its range, more conservation work needs to be done to protect the species from extinction. Some portions of the piha's range are protected, among them the 4.5 km2 (1,100 acres) Reserva Natural La Forzosa where the bird was first discovered. This site had actually been declared a reserve by a local landowner prior to the species' discovery.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet and breeding

The piha is typically found between the midstory and lower canopy of its cloud forest, and has been observed joining mixed-species foraging flocks in the upper canopy, although typically only for the amount of time needed for the flock to pass through the piha's territory. The chestnut-capped piha is mostly frugivorous, although it will eat some invertebrates.

The piha typically picks the fruit by hover-gleaning on short sallying flights, although the species will infrequently eat fruits from a perched position. The nest and breeding behavior of the chestnut-capped piha has not been described.

In crisis

The chestnut-capped piha is considered by the IUCN to be critically endangered, and the population may be as low as 250 birds. It is primarily threatened by habitat destruction as its cloud forests are converted into usage for farming, mining, and agriculture. The chestnut-capped piha was listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List between 2002 and 2015, when it was reclassified as a critically endangered species, due in large part to its small range and habitat destruction.

Climate change is also believed to pose a future threat to the species due to the piha's very specific habitat requirements. As temperatures rise, the piha will have to move upslope to maintain a favorable climate. When the species was initially described, the population was estimated to be around 2,500. Even so, in 2014 it was reevaluated and estimated that there may be fewer than 250 chestnut-capped pihas remaining.

Chestnut-capped Piha is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Chestnut-capped Piha, Wikidata item Q1317030. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.