Ash-throated Antwren

Identification

The ash-throated antwren is 11.5 to 13 cm (4.5 to 5.1 in) long; the holotype weighed 11.5 g (0.41 oz). Adult males have a black crown, a pale grayish white supercilium, a black streak through the eye, and pale grayish white ear coverts. Their back and rump are gray with dark gray to black scapulars that have wide white outer webs. They have a mixed black and white patch between the scapulars. Their wings are black with wide white tips on the coverts and brownish tips and white outer edges on the flight feathers. Their central tail feathers are black with white tips; the rest are black with white tips that are progressively larger to the outermost pair, whose outer half is white. Their chin is pale grayish white, their throat and breast pale gray, the center of their belly white, and their undertail coverts grayish white. The sides of their breast and flanks are a darker gray than the breast itself. Adult females have an orangish cinnamon forehead, a dark buff supercilium, and a black streak behind the eye. Their crown is dusky to black with a few thin white streaks. The sides of their neck are ochraceous buff, making a "collar" except for the black nape. Their back and rump are gray with a light ochraceous wash on the upper back and black, white, and gray scapulars. Their wings and tail are like the male's. Their chin, throat, and breast are ochraceous buff, their belly white, and their flanks and undertail coverts pale gray with a light buffy wash. Adults have a brown iris, a black maxilla, a grayish blue mandible, and blue-gray or grayish blue legs and feet.

Taxonomy

The ash-throated antwren was described as a new species in 1986. The first specimens had been collected in northern Peru in 1983. It is a member of a clade within the genus that also includes the Bahia antwren (H. pileatus), black-capped antwren (H. atricapillus), and creamy-bellied antwren (H. motacilloides). The ash-throated and creamy-bellied antwrens are sister species. The ash-throated antwren's specific epithet honors Theodore A. Parker III, "the finest field birder/ornithologist that the world had ever seen".<p>The ash-throated antwren is monotypic.

Scientific name

Herpsilochmus parkeri

Authority

Davis, TJ & O'Neill, 1986

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Thamnophilidae

Genus

Herpsilochmus

Range and habitat

The ash-throated antwren is known only from the watershed of the Río Mayo in the northern Peruvian Department of San Martín. It inhabits a variety of wooded landscapes including tall humid montane forest, mid-height semi-stunted forest, and very low stunted forest, many of them on sandy soil. In elevation it occurs in the narrow range of 1,250 to 1,450 m (4,100 to 4,800 ft).

Migration

Resident species

Behavior

The ash-throated antwren is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The ash-throated antwren's diet has not been detailed but is known to include insects and spiders. It usually forages in pairs and often as a member of a mixed-species feeding flock.<p>The ash-throated antwren's breeding season appears to span from May to September or October. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.<p>The ash-throated antwren's song is "a rapid, accelerating-decelerating, rising-falling series of rich notes, with a rising series of 2 or 3 introductory notes: pew-PEW-PEW-pee'e'E'E'E'e'e-e-e-e-u". Its call is "a rich, short tchew, often doubled or tripled".

Conservation

Population trend

declining