Ringed Antpipit
Corythopis torquatus
Small ground-dwelling flycatcher of lowland rainforest. Very unusual appearance for a flycatcher, looking more like a tiny thrush or an antbird as it struts around the ground with its body held upright. Likes to walk on logs and tree roots in mature rainforest, making short flights up to understory vegetation to catch insects. Dull brown above and white below with broad black breast streaks. Listen for its short song with a distinctive “up-down” pattern, a whistled “wheeu, pew.”
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Corythopis torquatus
- Authority
- Tschudi, 1844
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Tyrannidae
- Genus
- Corythopis
Range and habitat
The range of the ringed antpipit is the entire Amazon Basin, the Guianan region, Marajó Island, and the southeast Orinoco River Basin region in eastern Venezuela; also the downstream half of the neighboring Amazon Basin river system in the southeast, the Araguaia-Tocantins River, with the range ending easterly on the Atlantic coast of Brazil's Maranhão state.<p>In the southern Amazon Basin approaching the northwestern Cerrado it approaches the range of its sister Corythopis species, southern antpipit, but the ranges do not intersect.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Black Francolin
Francolinus francolinus
Strikingly patterned male is unmistakable with his jet-black face and breast, white cheek patch, dark rust-brown collar, and bright white spots. Brownish female has a small orange nape patch, pale throat, and dense black-and-white markings all over the body; compare with larger Gray Francolin. Occurs in dry grasslands, agricultural land, and weedy fields. Shier than other francolins; more often heard than seen. Usually solitary or in pairs. Male call is a peculiar, metallic-sounding “keek, keek, kek-ke-kek.” Native to Asia, from Turkey east to far eastern India and northern Myanmar; introduced to Hawaii.
Black-headed Tanager
Stilpnia cyanoptera
Small bird of foothill forests. Males have a pale buffy body with black head, wings, and tail; females are much more drab, with a grayish-green head, pale bluish-green back, and yellowish underparts. In good light, both sexes show blue in flight feathers. Found in foothill forests and edge habitats, dry valleys, and in humid forest around the bases of the tepuis. Usually observed at fruiting trees, often in pairs or small family groups, from lower levels into canopy. Calls are indistinct chips and twitters. Plumage pattern of male is distinctive; females are more confusing but are seldom seen without males, facilitating identification; note contrasting gray head and (at close range) blue in wings.
Sooty Owl
Tyto tenebricosa
Medium-sized dark-gray owl with prominent facial disc and white speckles through the plumage. This handsome species inhabits rainforest, wet eucalypt forest, and surrounding habitats. Its pale feet seem too large for its body. The northern subspecies is smaller and paler. Main calls include a high-pitched "falling-bomb" whistle and insect-like squeaks and trills.
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