Collared Gnatwren
Microbates collaris
A tiny, long-billed bird of forest understory. Brown above and white below with a black crescent across the chest. Note striking facial pattern with white eyebrow and black malar mark. General impression is wren-like with long bill, contrasting eyebrow, and tail usually held cocked. Difficult to see well, as it tends to remain in dense understory growth around treefalls and other gaps in tall rainforest, where it is locally distributed and never common. Usually seen alone or in pairs. Song is a long, descending whistle, repeated at roughly three-second intervals, very similar in tone and pace to second note of Tawny-crowned Greenlet’s song. Harsh scolding note is perhaps the best giveaway to this species’s presence. Generally unmistakable given a decent view; in silhouette could be confused with Long-billed Gnatwren but has much stronger face pattern and is usually confined to dense undergrowth rather than the vine tangles inhabited by Long-billed.
Identification
The collared gnatwren is approximately 11 cm (4.3 in) long and weighs 10 to 12 g (0.35 to 0.42 oz). The nominate subspecies is brown above and mostly creamy white below. Its head has a brown crown, white supercilium, cheek, and throat, and a thick black line through the eye. The underside has a wide black band across the chest and olive-brown flanks. The sexes are similar. The other subspecies differ in the intensity and in some cases the hue of the upperparts and flanks and the width of some facial markings.
Taxonomy
The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and BirdLife International (BLI) recognize five subspecies of collared gnatwren:<p>However, the Clements taxonomy has not accepted M. c. torquatus and M. c. colombianus as subspecies. It includes torquatus in collaris and does not seem to address colombianus, though it might be included in perlatus.
- Scientific name
- Microbates collaris
- Authority
- (Pelzeln, 1868)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Polioptilidae
- Genus
- Microbates
Range and habitat
The subspecies of the collared gnatwren are distributed thus:<p>The collared gnatwren generally inhabits the undergrowth of wet, humid, terra firme forest, usually near water and mostly below 500 m (1,600 ft) elevation. It seldom occurs in forest edges. In French Guiana and Suriname it occurs in primary rainforest.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The collared gnatwren's diet is almost exclusively small arthropods. It forages very near the ground picking prey from foliage and probing leaf litter. It often joins mixed-species foraging flocks and may follow army ant swarms.<p>Information on the collared gnatwren's breeding phenology is sparse. An active nest was found in mid-May in Brazil and fledglings were observed in Guyana between August and October. The nest was a bulky cup constructed of rotted leaves lined with soft material and hidden close to the ground in a palmetto. It contained two eggs.<p>The collared gnatwren's song is "a series of soft, thin notes, 'peeee' or 'eeeeea'" [1]. It has an alarm call [2].
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Striking white ibis with a naked black head and neck and black legs and feet. White wings framed by black wingtips and trailing edges. Can be encountered in almost any open habitat from wild wetlands to farmland and rubbish dumps. Originally restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, but now established in Taiwan and Europe, with feral colonies in France, Italy, and Spain.
White-crowned Starling
Lamprotornis albicapillus
A large, distinctive, boldly patterned starling of dry country. There is a white crown and a white patch in the wing that is visible when perched and very obvious in flight. Also note the pale eye and brown underparts with white streaking. Found in dry thorn savanna, thorn scrub, towns, and villages, usually in small flocks, often associated with livestock. The vocalizations include slurred rattling notes, whistles, and whines.
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Suthora ricketti
Gregarious long-tailed little bird. Restricted to southwestern China and adjacent northern Myanmar, where it inhabits grassy and scrubby areas, as well as bamboo stands and secondary growth, in mountains and foothills. Note the warm reddish-brown head, pale eye, darker brown wings and tail, and streaked white throat. Similar to Brown-winged Parrotbill (with which it was formerly considered one species), but note paler eyes and more contrastingly streaked breast. Moves about noisily through dense vegetation, twittering and chattering constantly.
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