see text Canasteros and thistletails are small passerine birds of South America belonging to the genus Asthenes.

The name "canastero" comes from Spanish and means "basket-maker", referring to the large, domed nests these species make of sticks or grass.

[4] The type species was designated by George Robert Gray in 1855 as Synallaxis sordida Lesson.

[7] In 2010, it was discovered that the thistletails and the Itatiaia spinetail, formerly placed in their own genera (Schizoeaca and Oreophylax, respectively), are actually part of a rapid radiation of long-tailed Asthenes.

[2] At the same time, four species, the cactus, dusky-tailed, Steinbach's and Patagonian canasteros, were split off into the new genus Pseudasthenes.