The Streaked Tuftedcheek, Pseudocolaptes boissonneautii, is a passerine

Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...

 bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 in the ovenbird family

Ovenbird (family)

Ovenbirds or furnariids are a large family of small suboscine passerine birds found in Mexico, and Central and South America. They form the family Furnariidae...

, which breeds in the tropical New World

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

 in the coastal mountains of Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, and the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 from Venezuela to Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the Buffy Tuftedcheek

Buffy Tuftedcheek

The Buffy Tuftedcheek or Lawrence’s Tuftedcheek, Pseudocolaptes lawrencii, is a passerine bird in the ovenbird family, which breeds in the tropical New World in Costa Rica, western Panama and the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the Streaked Tuftedcheek, P....

, P. lawrencii of Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

, Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 and Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

.

It occurs as a resident breeder in wet mountain forests, with many epiphyte

Epiphyte

An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...

s, above 1500 m. It lays one white egg in a thickly lined old woodpecker

Woodpecker

Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks. They are found worldwide and include about 180 species....

 nest or other tree cavity. One parent, probably the female, incubates the single white egg for about 29 days to hatching.

The Streaked Tuftedcheek is typically 22 cm long, weighs 48 g, and has a long bright rufous tail. The back is brown with dark streaks. The head has a buff streaked dark brown cap and paler eyestripe. The cheeks sport a tuft of buff-white feathers. The throat is white and the underparts are olive brown with diffuse spotting on the breast. The sexes are similar.

This species has a hard wooden chut-chut-cheee song, often given as a duet. The call is a sharp chut.

The Streaked Tuftedcheek forages actively amongst mosses, vines, bromeliads and other epiphytes for insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s, spider

Spider

Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...

s, and even small amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

s. It will join mixed feeding flocks in the middle levels of the forest.