Variegated Antpitta
Grallaria varia
Large plump antpitta with a short tail, long legs, and big eyes. Cryptically plumaged with a gray-speckled crown, brown spotted body, and a white moustache. Very secretive; walks quietly on the ground in humid forests. The song is deep and reverberates long distances through the forest, increasing in volume towards the end.
Identification
Large plump antpitta with a short tail, long legs, and big eyes. Cryptically plumaged with a gray-speckled crown, brown spotted body, and a white moustache. Very secretive; walks quietly on the ground in humid forests. The song is deep and reverberates long distances through the forest, increasing in volume towards the end.
Taxonomy
The variegated antpitta was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Formicarius varius in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The variegated antpitta is now placed in the genus Grallaria that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816. The genus name is from Neo-Latin grallarius meaning "stilt-walker". The specific epithet varia is from Latin varius meaning "various", "diverse" or "variegated".<p>Five subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Grallaria varia
- Authority
- (Boddaert, 1783)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Grallariidae
- Genus
- Grallaria
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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