Guianan Gnatcatcher
Polioptila guianensis
Inconspicuous and rarely seen bird of rainforest canopy. Small and slender with a long tail; mostly dark gray with a broken white eyering, white belly, and white outer tail feathers. Inhabits canopy of tall forest, especially in regions with sandy soils, and also occurs in shorter-stature forests on white sand. Usually seen with mixed-species flocks as it forages actively in outer foliage, sallying for insects and gleaning from leaves, moving long tail from side to side, like other gnatcatchers. Thin and indistinct call notes are easily overlooked among calls of other species in flocks, but distinctive shape, active behavior, and long tail with much white should clinch identification. Distinguished from Tropical Gnatcatcher by uniform gray body plumage and lack of a black cap.
Identification
The Guianan gnatcatcher is 10 to 11 cm (3.9 to 4.3 in) long and weighs 5 to 7 g (0.18 to 0.25 oz). The male's head, back, and breast are bluish gray. It has a broken white eye ring. The innermost feathers of its tail are black and the two outermost white. Its throat and belly are white. The female is similar but a paler gray and has a white supercilium.
Taxonomy
The Guianan gnatcatcher is monotypic. Two former subspecies, Rio Negro gnatcatcher (Polioptila facilis) and Para gnatcatcher (P. paraensis, also called Klages's gnatcatcher) have been treated as separate species since mid-2019. The Inambari gnatcatcher (P. attenboroughi) and Iquitos gnatcatcher (P. clementsi), which were accepted as new species at about that time, are very closely related to it.
- Scientific name
- Polioptila guianensis
- Authority
- Todd, 1920
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Polioptilidae
- Genus
- Polioptila
Range and habitat
The Guianan gnatcatcher is found in the Guianas and adjoining Brazil south to the Amazon River. Its range might also extend westward into eastern Venezuela. It inhabits the borders and canopy of humid primary forest, savanna forest, and dryland forest.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The Guianan gnatcatcher's diet has not been documented but is assumed to be arthropods like that of other Polioptila gnatcatchers. It actively forages as part of mixed-species flocks.<p>The Guianan gnatcatcher's breeding phenology is essentially unknown, but "A male was observed feeding a fledgling on 27 November 1984 in French Guiana".<p>The Guianan gnatcatcher's song is "fairly simple...repeated high notes" [1].
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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