The rufous-throated dipper or Argentine dipper (Cinclus schulzii) is a Vulnerable species of semiaquatic songbird of South America. It is found in Argentina and Bolivia.
Taxonomy and systematics
The rufous-throated dipper was described by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1882 and given the binomial Cinclus schulzii. The type locality is the mountain of Cerro Bayo in northern Argentina. The specific epithet schulzii was chosen to honor the German zoologist Friedrich W. Schulz (1866-1933) who had collected the type specimen. Various authors have misspelled the specific epithet as schulzi and schultzi. Of the five species now placed in the genus, a molecular genetic study has shown that the rufous-throated dipper is most closely related to the other South American species, the white-capped dipper (Cinclus leucocephalus).
The rufous-throated dipper is monotypic.
Distribution and habitat
The rufous-throated dipper is found on the east side of the Andes from southern Chuquisaca and western Tarija departments in southern Bolivia south into northwestern Argentina to Catamarca and Tucumán provinces. It is a bird of rocky fast-flowing mountain streams and rivers. It favors waterways that are about wide that flow between cliffs or rocky banks and have cascades and waterfalls. It very seldom is found on narrower streams in forest. In elevation it mostly ranges between though it has been observed higher and is known to sometimes descend to about in very cold weather. A dominant tree in its primary elevation zone is the Andean alder (Alnus acuminata). The species' song is "a loud melodious warbling or trilling" that is similar to that of the white-throated dipper, (C. cinclus). Its calls include "a loud zzit or dzchit or schenk"; they are usually given in a series and with a faster pace when in flight.