About Muscisaxicola capistratus (Burmeister, 1860)
The cinnamon-bellied ground tyrant, Muscisaxicola capistratus, measures 16.5 to 18 cm (6.5 to 7.1 in) in length. Males and females have identical plumage. Adult individuals have a black forecrown, and bright rufous-chestnut coloring on their mid- and hindcrown. Their face, nape, and upperparts are dusky gray or brownish gray. Their wings are dusky, with pale white edges along the flight feathers. Their tail is black, with whitish edges on the outer webs of the outermost feathers. Their throat is whitish, their breast is grayish buff, and their belly is cinnamon-rufous or rufous-buff, with darker coloring on the flanks and vent area. They have a dark iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet. Juveniles have a paler crown and paler belly than adults, with small blackish tips on their feathers, buff edges on their wings, and faint mottling on the breast. This species is distributed from Tierra del Fuego and the southernmost mainland of South America north along the Andes. It ranges through eastern Chile, western Argentina, and southern and western Bolivia, reaching into the Lake Titicaca basin in southern Peru; it occurs only very rarely further north than this. It inhabits moist areas with short grass, most commonly on hillsides with scattered bushes and rocky outcrops, in rocky canyons with grass patches, and in pastures. During the non-breeding season, it also regularly occurs in cushion plant bogs and along lakeshores. It breeds at elevations between sea level and 500 m (1,600 ft), and winters in Peru between 3,800 and 4,100 m (12,500 and 13,500 ft). It has been recorded as a vagrant in Brazil, far outside of its normal range.
