The white-capped dipper (Cinclus leucocephalus) is a semiaquatic passerine bird of South America. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The white-capped dipper was described by the Swiss naturalist Johann Jakob von Tschudi in 1844 with the binomial Cinclus leucocephalus, which it has retained ever since. The type locality is the Junín Province in Peru. The specific epithet leucocephalus combines the Ancient Greek leukos "white" and -kephalos "-headed". Of the five species now placed in the genus, a molecular genetic study has shown that the white-capped dipper is most closely related to the other South American species, the rufous-throated dipper (Cinclus schulzii).
The white-capped dipper has these three subspecies:
Distribution and habitat
Subspecies C. l. rivularis of the white-capped dipper is found in the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia. Subspecies C. l. leuconotus is found in the Serranía del Perijá on the Colombia-Venezuela border and in the Andes from the Lara-Trujillo border in western Venezuela south through all three Colombian Andes ranges into northern Peru as far as central Amazonas and San Martín departments. The nominate subspecies is found from northern Amazonas in Peru south into northwestern Bolivia to western Santa Cruz Department. It is found on the eastern Andean slope for the length of Peru but only locally on the western slope.