ANTBIRDS   -   THAMNOPHILIDAE   -   PART III

Ferruginous Antbird Drymophila ferruginea Vale das Taquaras, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Male. The Drymophila antbirds are some of the neatest and prettiest members of the antbird family. There are eight of them in the world, six of them are found only in the Atlantic Forest region, and four of them are endemic to Southeast Brazil, including this one. Ferruginous Antbird is one of the most common and easy to see, often foraging right in the open and not requiring any playback to see. (S5f)

Bertoni's Antbird Drymophila rubricollis Itatiaia NP, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Male. A very similar-looking species to the Ferruginous Antbird D. ferruginea above, and they were formerly considered conspecific. They are sometimes even found together in the same bamboo patch. Vocally they are very different. The males can be hard to separate by sight, but Bertoni's on average has a paler belly. (S6)		Bertoni's Antbird Drymophila rubricollis Itatiaia NP, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Female. She has a brown crown, which makes here easier to identify by plumage than the male. (S6)

Rufous-tailed Antbird Drymophila genei Pico da Caledônia, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Male. Endemic to SE Brazil. This species ranges at the highest elevations in the Atlantic Forest, especially in stunted forest just below treeline. (S5)

Ochre-rumped Antbird Drymophila ochropyga Vale das Taquaras, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Male. Also endemic to SE Brazil, where it prefers dense bamboo patches in the mountains. This bird seemed to tease me. Every time he came into view, he always sat somewhere where there was just one little annoying branch in the way! This was the best I could come up with. Photoshopping it out would be tough. (S5f)

Dusky-tailed Antbird Drymophila malura Pico da Caledônia, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Male. Unlike the other Drymophilas, it isn't really a forest bird. It prefers scrubby clearings. Perhaps for this reason, it is also a bit more widespread than its congeners in the Atlantic Forest region, getting into NE Argentina and S Paraguay. (S6)

Peruvian Warbling-Antbird Hypocnemis peruviana saturata Yasuní Research Station, Orellana province, Ecuador. Female. The Warbling Antbird has now been split into six species. Peruvian Warbling-Antbird is the one in the eastern Amazon. Ref: Isler, Morton L., Isler, Phyllis R. and Whitney, Bret M. 2007. Species limits in antbirds (Thamnophilidae): The Warbling Antbird (Hypocnemis cantator) complex. The Auk, 124(1): 11-28. Also see SACC proposal 299. (S6)

Imeri Warbling-Antbird Hypocnemis flavescens Mitú, Vaupés department, Colombia. Male. One of the Warbling Antbird splits; it occurs in eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela, and northwestern Brazil. It is extremely similar to the next species, having some very subtle vocal differences. Based on a few tests, it also responded just fine to playback of peruviana, making me doubt that it should really be considered a separate species. (S6)

Yellow-browed Antbird Hypocnemis hypoxantha hypoxantha Gareno Lodge, Napo province, Ecuador. Male. I almost didn't include photo since it is so poor, but it is such a cool bird that I ended up sticking it in. This species seems to prefer hilly areas in terra firme forest. (S3f)

Fringe-backed Fire-eye Pyriglena atra Santa Luzia de Itanhy, Sergipe state, Brazil. Male. This endangered species has a tiny range in the few remaining forest patches near the coast in northeastern Bahia and Sergipe in Brazil. (S6)

White-shouldered Fire-eye Pyriglena leucoptera Parque Estadual Intervales, São Paulo state, Brazil. Male. Normally a very skulking, hard-to-see species. I have no idea what possessed this one to sit in the open for five minutes... (D3)		Ash-breasted Antbird Myrmoborus lugubris stictopterus Anavilhanas Archipelago, Amazonas state, Brazil. Female. One of only very few shots I have of female antbirds. This is mainly due to the fact that the males are usually the ones to respond aggressively to playback, which is usually necessary to get field photos of these shy birds. (D3)

Black-faced Antbird Myrmoborus myotherinus elegans Shiripuno Lodge, Orellana province, Ecuador. Male. (S4)

Black-chinned Antbird Hypocnemoides melanopogon melanopogon Mitú, Vaupés department, Colombia. Male. Restricted to várzea forest; it's found mostly north of the Amazon, but there is one population occuring south of it in Brazil. (S6)

Bare-crowned Antbird Gymnocichla nudiceps sanctamartae El Paujil reserve, Santander department, Colombia. Male. "Bald Antbird" would have been a much cooler name. It is found in lowland rainforest from Belize to Colombia. (S5)

Silvered Antbird Sclateria naevia naevia Near Guaraunos, Sucre state, Venezuela. Male. An example of one of the eastern races, which are extensively streaked below. (D3)

Black-headed Antbird Percnostola rufifrons minor Mitú, Vaupés department, Colombia. Female. This subspecies is restricted to eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela, and northwestern Brazil. It is treated by some authors as a separate species, Amazonas Antbird, due mainly to plumage differences in the female; the most obvious feature is the brown crown as opposed to black or gray. Songs of the various races are similar, and while they may differ in pace, that is not really enough to justify splits without other evidence. (S6)

Spot-winged Antbird Schistocichla leucostigma subplumbea Shiripuno Lodge, Orellana province, Ecuador. Male. (S4)

White-bellied Antbird Myrmeciza longipes panamensis Tayrona National Park, Magdalena department, Colombia. Male. (S6)

Ferruginous-backed Antbird Myrmeciza ferruginea ferruginea c.60km north of Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil. Male. What a bird! Certainly one of the most handsome of the antbirds, and one of my favorite photos. (D3)

White-bibbed Antbird Myrmeciza loricata Itatiaia NP, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Male. Endemic to Atlantic Rainforest in eastern Brazil. (S6)

Magdalena Antbird Myrmeciza palliata Rio Claro, Doradal, Antioquia department, Colombia. Male. SACC recently accepted a proposal to split this taxon from Dull-mantled Antbird M. laemosticta of Central America (prop. 475), based on differences in voice. (S6)

Esmeraldas Antbird Myrmeciza nigricauda Milpe Bird Sanctuary, Pichincha province, Ecuador. Female. I had the camera set up wrong and drastically underexposed the bird. That's pretty much the same thing as setting the ISO level very high, so the result is a very grainy photo. This bird is a chocó endemic, found only in western Colombia and western Ecuador. (S5)

Gray-bellied Antbird Myrmeciza pelzelni Mitú, Vaupés department, Colombia. Male. One of the most poorly known of all the antbirds due to the remoteness of its range. It occurs in eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela, and northwestern Brazil, where it seems restricted to white sand forests. (S6)

White-shouldered Antbird Myrmeciza melanoceps Yasuní Research Station, Orellana province, Ecuador. Female. As is true with most antbirds, the females sing quite frequently, though perhaps not as often as the male. The male is all black with some white feathers under the shoulders, though they are often concealed. This species is restricted to the western third of the Amazon region. (S6)

Immaculate Antbird Myrmeciza immaculata macrorhyncha End of the Milpe road, Pichincha province, Ecuador. Male. (S5f)

Gray-headed Antbird Myrmeciza griseiceps Utuana, Loja province, Ecuador. One of the rarest and most threatened of all the antbirds, inhabiting a very small area in southern Ecuador and northwestern Peru. It seems to require semi-humid forest with a dense bamboo understory, andalmost all of it's habitat has been cleared. It occurs in only a few protected areas, including the Jorupe and El Tundo reserves in Ecuador and the Tumbes Reserved Zone in Peru. (S5)

White-plumed Antbird Pithys albifrons peruviana Yasuní Research Station, Orellana province, Ecuador. One of the most beautiful of all antbirds. It is a "professional" ant follower and is rarely seen away from antswarms. It's found in rainforest east of the Andes and mainly north of the Amazon, but does occur south of the Amazon in Peru. This photo was handheld at 1/40 sec at 3200 ISO, so there is a lot of room for improvement! (S6)

Bicolored Antbird Gymnopithys leucaspis aequatorialis Pacto-Guallabillas road, Pichincha province, Ecuador. This species is a "professional" antswarm follower. (S5f)

Chestnut-crested Antbird Rhegmatorhina cristata Mitú, Vaupés department, Colombia. A poor and distant photo taken in heavy rain in the very dark forest understory, but it is one of very few that exist for this very rare and localized antbird. It is restricted to part of the Rio Negro drainage in eastern Colombia and northwestern Brazil. It might occur in Venezuela, but as of yet has not been recorded there. (S6)

Spotted Antbird Hylophylax naevioides naevioides Playa de Oro, Esmeraldas province, Ecuador. Male. This species occurs from Honduras to western Ecuador. (S5f)

Spotted Antbird Hylophylax naevioides naevioides Plantation Road, Soberania NP, Panama. Female. In many of the antbirds, the female is more ornately patterned than the male, but that doesn't hold true for this one. (S2f)

Spot-backed Antbird Hylophylax naevius naevius Mitú, Vaupés department, Colombia. Male. One of the most common and widespread antbirds of the Amazon. (S6)

Scale-backed Antbird Hylophylax poecilinotus vidua Serra dos Carajás, Pará state, Brazil. Male. A widespread bird in the Amazon. He was attending a small army antswarm, which made him a lot easier to photograph. (D3)

Scale-backed Antbird Willisornis poecilinotus lepidonota Yasuní Research Station, Orellana province, Ecuador. Male. This bird shows much less scaling than the bird in the previous photo from ther other end of its range. However, the books don't seem to make out that this is a racial difference, so it could be age or just individual variation. (S6)

Black-spotted Bare-eye Phlegopsis nigromaculata nigromaculata Yasuní NP, Orellana province, Ecuador. Male. Taxonomically last, but for me it's one of the most amazing photos of this gallery. This is normally an incredibly shy bird, hard enough to get even a glimpse of, never mind digiscope. This guy perched for several minutes, giving me time to set the scope up in just the right place to get him through a gap in the leaves. Notice the spider web on his face; he must have just flown straight through a web, which has to be a pretty unpleasant experience for a bird (and fatal for the smallest ones). (D3)