Rusty-backed Monjita

The rusty-backed monjita is 18 to 19 cm (7.1 to 7.5 in) long. Adult males have a rufescent crown and a long white supercilium on an otherwise black-streaked white face. Their upperparts are mostly rufescent or rufous-brown with a grayish white rump. Their wings are mostly black. Their wing's greater and median coverts have grayish white edges and tips, the lesser coverts are rufescent, and the tertials have white edges. Their tail is mostly black with white outer webs on the three outer pairs of feathers. Their throat and underparts are mostly white with black streaks on the sides of the neck and across the breast and a rufous tinge on the flanks. Adult females are duller and less rufescent than males. Both sexes have a dark iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet. Immatures have dull buffy upperparts and a buffish throat and breast.

The rusty-backed monjita is found in Argentina in an area roughly bounded by the provinces of Tucumán, Entre Ríos, and northeastern Santa Cruz. In addition, it has been recorded as a vagrant in extreme southern Brazil and in Chile. The species inhabits grasslands and steppe with scattered small bushes; it sometimes is found along the shores of lakes. In elevation it ranges up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

The rusty-backed monjita feeds on insects. During the breeding season it primarily forages in pairs or groups of up to about five; in winter it joins in flocks as large as 30 individuals. It is often terrestrial, walking or running with pauses to scan or capture prey, but it will perch on bushes, wires, or fence posts and drop onto prey.