Sinaloa Wren, Troglodytes sinaloa

Sinaloa Wren, Troglodytes sinaloa cinereus. Photograph taken within the greater Alamos area, Alamos, Sonora, December 2017. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

The Sinaloa Wren, Troglodytes sinaloa cinereus, is one of three subspecies of Sinaloa Wren, with all three being found in western Mexico. They are a member of the Troglodytidae Family of Wrens, that has eighty-six members placed in nineteen genera, and one of twelve global species in the Troglodytes Genus. They are also known as the Bar-vented Wren and in Mexico as chivirín sinaloense and saltapared sinaloense.

The Sinaloa Wren is a mid-sized wren. The sexes are similar. They have plain brown upperparts, with a long white supercilium, and black and white stripes on the side of the head and neck. Their throat and center of the breast are whitish transitioning to grayish cinnamon on the margins. Their undertail coverts are white and barred in black. Their bill has a white mandible with a dark tip, their iris is hazel brown, and their legs and feet are pale reddish brown.

The Sinaloa Wren is ENDEMIC to western Mexico and are common and widespread. They are found within the understory of tropical deciduous forests and forest edges, scrub, secondary growth and plantations. They feed on insects. The Sinaloa Wren has been poorly studied and very limited information about their behavioral patterns and biology has been documented.

The Sinaloa Wren can be confused with the Banded Wren, Thryophilus pleurostictus, in the southern part of its range (bold black with white barring on the flanks and sides of the breast), and the Happy Wren, Pheugopedius felix (bright buffy or tawny underparts).

In Mexico the Sinaloa Wren is found from Sonora and Chihuahua south along the Pacific Slope to western Oaxaca at elevations up to 2,000 m (6,600 feet). The cinereus subspecies is found throughout Sonora south to northern Sinaloa and west to Chihuahua.

From a conservation perspective the Sinaloa Wren is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable widely distributed populations. Their long term viability is threatened by habitat loss.