Mérida tapaculo [SEP] parent taxon
Mérida tapaculo
The Mérida tapaculo ("Scytalopus meridanus") is a species of bird in the Rhinocryptidae family. It is endemic to Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.
Taxonomy.
The subspecies "S. m. fuscicauda" is sometimes split as a full species, the Lara tapaculo ("Scytalopus fuscicauda").
D.C. In 1953, the specimens began to attract the attention of biologists, and were successively identified as the brown-rumped tapaculo ("S. latebricola"), the Caracas tapaculo ("S. caracae"), and the Mérida tapaculo ("S. meridanus"). Some further believed that the specimens could belong to an undescribed species, or constitute a subspecies of the pale-bellied tapaculo ("S. griseicollis") or the Mérida tapaculo based on morphological studies, but they were never classified as