Moustached Antwren
Myrmotherula ignota
A tiny antwren with a very short tail. Looks like a ping-pong ball bouncing around the middle levels and canopy in lowland forest and edge. Occurs from Panama to Peru and Brazil. Male has a pale yellowish belly, bold black-and-white striping on the head and back, and thick white wingbars. Female is similar, but has a buffier head and upper breast. Best distinguished from Pygmy Antwren by voice. Listen for the long series of piping whistles that accelerates slightly at the end. The series is longer and doesn’t accelerate as rapidly as Pygmy. Also note thicker black mustache stripe and eyeline on Moustached Antwren.
Identification
The moustached antwren is 7.5 to 8 cm (3.0 to 3.1 in) long. It is a small bird with a tiny tail. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have the eponymous wide black "moustache", a black streak through the eye, and white cheeks. Their crown, back, rump, and tail are black with thin white streaks that are faintly yellow except on the crown. They have a white patch between the shoulders. Their wings are black with white tips on the coverts and white edges on the flight feathers. Their underparts are yellow with sparse black streaks. Adult females have buff to tawny buff streaks on the crown and lack the white patch between the shoulders. Males of subspecies M. i. obscura have fewer pale streaks on their upperparts than the nominate. Females have a buffier head, throat, and breast than the nominate.
Taxonomy
The moustached antwren has two subspecies, the nominate M. i. ignota (Griscom, 1929) and M. i. obscura (Zimmer, JT, 1932). M. i. ignota was originally treated as a subspecies of the pygmy antwren (M. brachyura) and later by some authors as a separate species, "Griscom's antwren". What is now M. i. obscura was treated as a monotypic species, the "short-billed antwren". Taxonomists now follow a 2003 publication that combined the two as the moustached antwren, which because of the principle of priority has the binomial Myrmotherula ignota.
- Scientific name
- Myrmotherula ignota
- Authority
- Griscom, 1929
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thamnophilidae
- Genus
- Myrmotherula
Range and habitat
The moustached antwren has a disjunct distribution. The nominate subspecies is found in Panama, on the Caribbean slope in the Panama Canal area and Guna Yala (San Blas) and on the Pacific slope from Panamá Province east. Its range continues into northern Colombia to Santander Department and through western Colombia into northwestern Ecuador as far as northwestern Pichincha Province. Subspecies M. i. obscura is found from south-central and southeastern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador into northeastern Peru and east into southwestern and west-central Brazil as far as the Rio Negro.<p>The moustached antwren primarily inhabits the canopy and subcanopy of lowland evergreen forest. The nominate subspecies also occurs in mature secondary forest. In the Amazon Basin M. i. obscura is found in both terra firme and várzea. In all areas the species favors forest edges, the edges of openings provided by fallen trees, and along watercourses. In elevation the species reaches 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in Panama, 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Colombia, and 600 m (2,000 ft) elsewhere.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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