Light-crowned spinetail
species of bird

The light-crowned spinetail (Cranioleuca albiceps) is a species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Bolivia and Peru.
Taxonomy and systematics
The light-crowned spinetail, the Marcapata spinetail (C. marcapatae), and the Vilcabamba spinetail (C. weskei) are sister species. The light-crowned spinetail has two subspecies, the nominate C. a. albiceps (D'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837) and C. a. discolor (Zimmer, JT, 1935).
Description
The light-crowned spinetail is 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long and weighs 13 to 17 g (0.46 to 0.60 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a dark gray-brown supercilium with a black line above it and some blackish around the eye on an otherwise dark grayish brown face. Their forehead is ocraceous buff and their crown white to buffy or tawny.
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This entry incorporates text from “Light-crowned spinetail” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.