The stripe-crowned spinetail (Cranioleuca pyrrhophia) is a species of bird in the Furnariinae subfamily of the ovenbird family Furnariidae.

[3] The stripe-crowned spinetail has three subspecies, the nominate C. p. pyrrhophia (Vieillot, 1818), C. p. rufipennis (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1879), and C. p. striaticeps (d'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837).

[4] Some earlier work supported treating the stripe-crowned, olive, and Bolivian spinetail (C. henricae) as a superspecies.

[7][8][9] Subspecies C. p. striaticeps has more streaking on the crown than the nominate, a slightly browner back, deeper rufous uppertail coverts and central tail feathers, a paler and less gray breast and belly, and a rufescent tinge on the undertail coverts.

[7] The nominate subspecies of the stripe-crowned spinetail is by far the most widespread, and the southernmost representative of genus Cranioleuca.

It is found in lowland southern Bolivia, in western Paraguay, in northeastern and central Argentina as far south as Río Negro Province, in essentially all of Uruguay, and in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.

C. p. striaticeps is found in Bolivia's central and southern Andes, in the departments of Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, and Tarija.

[7][8][9] The stripe-crowned spinetail inhabits a variety of landscapes including tropical deciduous forest, gallery forest, arid montane scrublands, dry savanna, semi-humid woodlands, and in the Andes Alnus and Podocarpus woodlands.

It acrobatically gleans prey from bark, lichens, mosses, and epiphytes as it hitches and climbs along small branches from the forest's understorey to its canopy.

Its entrance hole is on the side and the egg chamber is lined with soft plant fibers and feathers.