Royal Cinclodes

The royal cinclodes is 20 to 21 cm (7.9 to 8.3 in) long and weighs about 50 g (1.8 oz). It is a large cinclodes with a decurved, thick-based, bill. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a pale buffish supercilium that extends to the nape, a whitish malar area with thin dark bars, and an otherwise dark brown face. Their crown and upperparts are dark brown. Their wings are also dark brown, with black-edged rufous across the base of the flight feathers. Their tail is blackish. Their throat is whitish with thin dark bars and their underparts are dark brown with wide white streaks on the breast. Their iris is dark brown to brown, their bill black, and their legs and feet dark pinkish gray to black.

The royal cinclodes is found very locally from south-central Peru's Department of Junín through the departments of Apurímac, Cuzco, and Puno into Bolivia's La Paz Department. It inhabits humid Polylepis-Gynoxys woodlands, where it favors boggy areas at the base of steep rocky slopes. In elevation it ranges from 3,500 to 4,600 m (11,500 to 15,100 ft).

The royal cinclodes mostly feeds on invertebrates but also occasionally includes seeds and small vertebrates like frogs in its diet. It forages singly or in pairs, probing and digging for prey in among mossy rocks, in decaying wood, and in boggy areas. It occasionally also gleans its prey from surfaces.