Junín Canastero

The Junin canastero is about 17.5 to 18 cm (6.9 to 7.1 in) long; one specimens weighed 22 g (0.78 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a narrow buff supercilium on an otherwise ochraceous brown face. Their crown is black with orange brown streaks. Their nape and upper back are black with pale buff streaks. Their lower back, rump, and uppertail coverts are medium brown or olive brown with black and buff streaks. Their wing coverts are olive brown with black and buff streaks. Their outer flight feathers are rufous with reddish brown edges and the inner ones dusky brown with olive brown edges; all have dusky tips. Their central pair of tail feathers are dusky brown, the next pair have dusky brown inner webs and rufous outer webs with dusky edges, and the other three pairs are rufous with a black line on the outer web and black and dusky mottling on the inner web. Their chin is ochraceous buff. Their breast and belly are pale creamy brown with faint tawny olive streaks on the breast. Their flanks are tawny olive with buffy white streaks and their vent area is tawny. Their iris is dark brown, their maxilla horn, their mandible grayish pink, and their legs and feet olive.

The Junin canastero has a disjunct distribution in central and southern Peru. It is found where the departments of Junín, Pasco, and Lima meet and also from Ayacucho department through Cuzco and Apurímac departments slightly into Puno department. There are scattered sightings between these two population centers. The Junin canastero primarily inhabits humid landscapes with tall bunch grass, sometimes those with scattered bushes and near stands of polylepis. It also sometimes occurs in rocky areas of bunchgrass without bushes or trees. In elevation it ranges between 3,300 and 4,600 m (10,800 and 15,100 ft).

The Junin canastero's diet has not been studied; it is assumed to be mostly or entirely arthropods. It usually forages singly or in pairs, and mostly on the ground.