White-browed Foliage-gleaner
Anabacerthia amaurotis
Medium-sized foliage-gleaner with a dark brown cap and mask contrasting with a creamy eyebrow. Rufous above and buff below with streaks on the breast and neck. Found in the understory of humid forests and old second growth, usually accompanying mixed-species flocks.
Identification
The white-browed foliage-gleaner is 15 to 16 cm (5.9 to 6.3 in) long. It is a medium-sized furnariid with a wedge-shaped bill. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a wide buff-white supercilium, a dark brown band behind the eye, and an indistinct brown "moustache" on an otherwise lightly flecked and streaked, light buff, face. Their crown is brown with black-edged white feathers at the center of the back, and they have a narrow pale buff collar that extends onto the side of their neck. Their back is rich medium brown, their rump a slightly paler brown, and their uppertail coverts rufous. Their tail is rufous with bare shafts at the very end of the feathers. Their wings are rich medium brown with darker brown primary coverts. Their throat is creamy whitish, their breast light brown with wide but blurry pale buff streaks, their belly unstreaked light brown, and their flanks and undertail coverts slightly darker brown with a rufescent tinge. Their iris is dark brown, their bill pale horn with some pale gray, and their legs and feet brownish cream to cream-tinged olive.
Taxonomy
The white-browed foliage-gleaner was previously included in genus Philydor but a 2011 paper made it plain that it did not belong there. The same paper found the ochre-breasted foliage-gleaner (A. lichtensteini) and the white-browed to be sister species.<p>The white-browed foliage gleaner is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Anabacerthia amaurotis
- Authority
- (Temminck, 1823)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Furnariidae
- Genus
- Anabacerthia
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The white-browed foliage-gleaner is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The white-browed foliage-gleaner feeds on adult and larval arthropods. It usually forages as part of mixed-species feeding flocks, and usually in the forest's understory though it will feed as high as the subcanopy. It acrobatically gleans, probes, and pecks for its prey in dead leaves, debris, and branches. It occasionally will sally a short distance from a perch to capture prey.<p>Nothing is known about the white-browed foliage-gleaner's breeding biology.<p>The white-browed foliage-gleaner's song is "a short, accelerated, ascending and descending series of very/ext. high 'seep' notes". Its call is an "extr. high, thin 'steep tseep seepseep -' ".
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Phaethornis nattereri
Tiny hummingbird with a curved bill. Easily confused with other hermits, but note the cinnamon tinge to the underparts and the white-tipped central tail feathers. The Maranhao Hermit subspecies, considered by some authorities as a separate species, is a richer cinnamon color. Inhabits the interior of dry forest zones, including gallery forest, second growth, savanna, and caatinga woodland.
Yellow-crowned Elaenia
Myiopagis flavivertex
Small, inconspicuous bird of coastal swamps and seasonally inundated forests. Yellow crown is essentially impossible to see under most viewing conditions; note dull overall appearance, indistinct wing bars, and longish tail. Inhabits upper levels of tall forest; also occurs in abandoned plantations and other disturbed habitats, where it may be found closer to the ground. Feeds on insects and fruit. Most similar to Greenish Elaenia but has more prominent wing bars; Forest Elaenia is more clean-cut, with a stronger facial pattern and white crown patch. Explosive song is a decelerating cackle; it is distinctive once learned and usually the most reliable indicator of this species’s presence.
Yellow-shouldered Grosbeak
Parkerthraustes humeralis
Distinctive large-billed tanager. Gray below, yellow-green above, with a gray head, black mask, thick bill, and red eye. Appears big-headed. From underneath, looks mostly gray, though its upperparts are quite brightly colored. Forages in the canopy of tall mature and secondary forest, particularly in upland areas. Often joins mixed-species flocks with tanagers. Calls include high “seet” notes and a high, bi-syllabic “tsi-lit”; its song is a series of high whistled notes interspersed with electric buzzes.
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