Patagonian Forest Earthcreeper

The Patagonian forest earthcreeper is 20 to 22 cm (7.9 to 8.7 in) long. It is a large earthcreeper with a medium-length and moderately decurved bill. The sexes' plumages are alike. Adults have a whitish supercilium on an otherwise grayish white and dark grayish brown face. Their crown is a dull dark grayish brown with some fainter mottling. Their nape, back, rump, and uppertail coverts are dark brownish gray with an olive tinge. Their tail's central feathers are dusky brown and the rest blackish brown. Their wings are grayish brown with dull rufous bases to the flight feathers. Their chin is whitish, their throat whitish with thin dark bars, their breast dark grayish with a brown scalloped appearance, their belly grayish, their flanks grayish brown, and their undertail coverts dull gray-brown. Their iris is dark brown, their bill blackish, and their legs and feet dark brown. Juveniles are similar to adults but with an even shorter bill.

The Patagonian forest earthcreeper is found in central Chile between Concepción and Valdivia provinces and in western Argentina between Neuquén and Chubut provinces. There are a few scattered records as far north in Chile as Santiago. It is found in Patagonia only in Argentina. It inhabits forest edges including the edges of clearings with the forest, and usually near bodies of water. It favors Nothofagus forest but inhabits other types as well. It is believed to spend the austral winter in dry deciduous forest and matorral near the Chilean coast. In elevation it occurs between 250 and 1,800 m (800 and 5,900 ft).

The Patagonian forest earthcreeper's diet has not been described but is assumed to be larval and adult arthropods. It typically forages alone or in loose pairs, always on the ground, and usually near tall rees, around bushes, or in boggy ground at the forest's edge. It vigorously probes the earth for prey and sometimes turns over chunks of soil or stones. It often perches in trees when not feeding, and sometimes takes prey from the ground to a perch.