Rufous Piha

The rufous piha is 22 to 26 cm (8.7 to 10 in) long; six individuals weighed 79 to 97 g (2.8 to 3.4 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a rufous crown with thin, somewhat lighter, streaks. The rest of their face and their upperparts are deep cinnamon brown. Their wings and tail are deep cinnamon brown with deep ochraceous buff inner webs on the remiges. Their underparts are buffy cinnamon that is darker and duller on the breast. Subspecies L. u. castaneotinctus has darker, more chestnut cinnamon upperparts than the nominate. Both subspecies have a dark brown iris, a dusky gray maxilla, a dull buffy brown mandible with a gray tip, and gray to brown legs and feet. The rufous piha looks similar to the rufous mourner (Rhytipterna holerythra) and speckled mourner (Laniocera rufescens), and the three share much of their ranges.

The nominate subspecies of the rufous piha has by far the larger range of the two. It is found from southern Veracruz and northern Oaxaca in southern Mexico south on the Caribbean slope through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama and from there south into western Colombia and east in Colombia to the middle of the Magdalena River valley. It also occurs separately on the Pacific slope from central Costa Rica south slightly into Panama. Subspecies L. u. castaneotinctus is found from far southwestern Colombia's Cauca Department into northwestern Ecuador's Esmeraldas Province. The rufous piha primarily inhabits humid evergreen forest and mature secondary forest in the lowlands of the tropical zone. It occasionally is found in more open areas with scattered trees. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in northern Central America, to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in Costa Rica, to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Colombia, and to 700 m (2,300 ft) in Ecuador.

The rufous piha feeds on a variety of insects and other arthropods like spiders, on berries, and on other fruits such as those of palms and laurels. It typically forages singly, though sometimes in small loose flocks, and rarely joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It perches for long periods from the forest's mid-story to its canopy before making short flights to take fruit or insects in a brief hover.