Rufous-throated Antbird
Gymnopithys rufigula
Medium-sized antbird of rainforest understory, almost always encountered near swarms of army ants, which it follows to pursue insects flushed by the ants. No similar species in range; key field marks are pale legs and striking bare eyering, which appears white in dim forest understory. Frequently seen perched on vertical stems within a meter of the ground. Usually heard prior to being seen; gives low churring calls while foraging and a sharp doubled note when chasing other birds.
Identification
The rufous-throated antbird is 11.5 to 14 cm (4.5 to 5.5 in) long and weighs 26 to 32 g (0.92 to 1.1 oz). Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a brownish black forehead and lores, an olive-brown crown and nape, and bare blue skin around the eye. Their back and rump are olive-brown with a hidden white patch between the scapulars. Their wings and tail are dark yellow-brown. Their cheeks and upper throat are rufous-chestnut, their lower throat and upper breast cinnamon, and their sides, flanks, and belly olive-brown. Adult females are duller than males and their intrascapular patch is cinnamon. Subspecies G. r. pallidigula has a paler throat and belly center and a more ochraceous breast than the nominate. G. r. pallidus resembles pallidigula with a paler and more olivaceous back. The subspecies are so similar that they may represent clinal variation.
Taxonomy
The rufous-throated antbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1775 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Turdus rufigula in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The rufous-throated antbird is now placed in the genus Gymnopithys that was introduced by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1857 with the rufous-throated antbird as the type species. The name Gymnopithys combines the Ancient Greek gumnos meaning "bare" or "naked" with the name of the antbird genus Pithys that was erected by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1818. The specific epithet rufigula combines the Latin words rufus "red" and gula "throat". The rufous-throated antbird shares genus Gymnopithys with the bicolored antbird (G. bicolor) and white-throated antbird (G. leucaspis). <p>The rufous-throated antbird has three subspecies, the nominate G. r. rufigula (Boddaert, 1783), G. r. pallidus (Cherrie, 1909), and G. r. pallidigula (Phelps & Phelps Jr, 1947).
- Scientific name
- Gymnopithys rufigula
- Authority
- (Boddaert, 1783)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thamnophilidae
- Genus
- Gymnopithys
Range and habitat
The rufous-throated antbird is a species of the Guianan Shield. The nominate subspecies is the most widespread. It is found from the drainage of the Rio Cuyuní in extreme eastern Venezuela east through the Guianas and in northern Brazil east of the Rio Negro and north of the Amazon. Subspecies G. r. pallidus is found in southern Venezuela's Bolívar state except for the Cuyuní drainage and in Amazonas state except for the vicinity of Pica Yavita-Pimichín. G. r. pallidigula has a limited range near Pica Yavita-Pimichín in extreme southern Venezuela's Amazonas state.<p>The rufous-throated antbird primarily inhabits humid lowland and foothill terra firme evergreen forest. It almost entirely remains in the forest undergrowth and seldom enters open areas or crosses streams and roads. In elevation it occurs below 900 m (3,000 ft) in most of its range but is found locally as high as 1,200 m (3,900 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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