Spot-backed Antshrike
Hypoedaleus guttatus
Chunky antshrike with a long tail and heavy bill with a hooked tip. Males are spotted black and white above (buffier in females) and brownish below with a barred tail. Found in the sub-canopy of vine tangles in humid forest, usually in pairs moving actively, but can be hard to see. The song is a long whistled trill that lasts about 5 seconds.
Identification
The spot-backed antshrike is a large antbird, 20 to 21 cm (7.9 to 8.3 in) long. The species exhibits slight sexual dimorphism. Both sexes have a short, heavy, gray bill with a hook at the end like true shrikes. Adult males have a black crown, nape, and upperparts spotted with white and a brownish black tail with white bars. Their throat and breast are white and their sides pale gray. Their belly and crissum are nearly white in the northern part of their range and gradually darken to brownish yellow to the south. Adult females have a similar pattern as males, but with buff spots on their upperparts and more extensive brownish yellow on their underparts.
Taxonomy
The spot-backed antshrike was described by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 and given the binomial name Thamnophilus guttatus. The genus Hypoedaleus was erected by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis and Ferdinand Heine in 1860 with the spot-backed antshrike as the type species. The name of the genus is from the Ancient Greek hupoidaleos meaning "somewhat swollen". The specific epithet is from the Latin guttatus meaning "spotted" or "speckled".<p>The spot-backed antshrike is the only member of genus Hypoedaleus and it has no subspecies.
- Scientific name
- Hypoedaleus guttatus
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1816)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Pomatostomidae
- Genus
- Hypoedaleus
Range and habitat
The spot-backed antshrike is found from eastern Alagoas in eastern Brazil south to northern Rio Grande do Sul and southwest through eastern Paraguay and into northeastern Argentina's Misiones Province. It is a bird of the Atlantic Forest, where it inhabits the subcanopy and canopy of lowland evergreen forest. It almost exclusively stays in wetter areas with dense vines and other vegetation. In elevation it ranges from sea level to about 900 m (3,000 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The spot-backed antshrike is presumed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The spot-backed antshrike feeds on a variety of insects and other arthropods; its diet also includes snails and possibly small vertebrates like tree-frogs and lizards. It usually forages in pairs, mostly about between 8 and 15 m (25 and 50 ft) above the ground, and sometimes joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It hops slugishly through dense vines and other vegetation, reaching from a perch to glean prey from leaves, especially those of bromeliads and epiphytic ferns, and also from stems and branches. It was once observed following an army ant swarm, staying low to the ground to capture prey disturbed by the ants.<p>The spot-backed antshrike's eggs are white with lilac dots and larger blackish spots. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.<p>The spot-backed antshrike's song is a "very high, slow, at first rising then descending, shivering rattle" that lasts four or five seconds. Its calls include a "long, downward-inflected whistle", a "shorter, slightly descending churr", and an "abrupt 'chip' ".
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Lesser Crested Tern
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Elegant medium-sized tern with a slender yellow-orange bill and black crown. Can be confused with Great Crested Tern; note proportionally longer, more orangey bill on Lesser Crested. Also note gray upperwing, which separates it from Sandwich Tern. Gray rump and tail are diagnostic if seen well. On juveniles, note dull legs, secondaries with dark centers, and a weakly patterned upperwing. Strictly coastal, usually found on beaches and estuaries. Call a noisy “kerrrick.”
Braun's Bushshrike
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A striking, mostly blackish bushshrike with a bright orange throat and breast, a chestnut crown and nape, and a white belly and wing-stripe. Pairs are scarce and skulky in the understory of secondary and gallery forest at only six localities near Uige along the Angolan escarpment, between 600 and 1260 meters of elevation. Vocalizations are variable, but quality is consistent: a haunting reverberating “whorrrrr,” a sweet musical “til-out, til-out,” and nasal twanging or grating rattles.
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