Great Antshrike

Identification

The great antshrike is a large and distinctive bird, 19 to 20 cm (7.5 to 7.9 in) long and weighing 47.5 to 70 g (1.7 to 2.5 oz). The species exhibits significant sexual dimorphism, though both sexes of all subspecies have a large crest, a red iris, and a heavy black bill with a hook at the end like true shrikes. Adult males of the nominate subspecies T. m. major have a black head with the color extending to below the eye. Their upperparts are mostly black with a usually hidden white patch between the scapulars. Their wings are black with large white spots on the coverts that appear as bars when perched and white edges on the primaries. Their tail is black with white spots on the outer feathers. Their throat, chin, and the rest of their underparts are white with a gray tinge on the flanks. Adult females have a rufous crown and browner lores and ear coverts. Their upperparts are reddish yellow-brown, their wings reddish yellow-brown with paler feather edges, and their tail is rufous. Their chin, throat, and center of their breast are white; their crissum is light cinnamon, and the rest of their underparts are white with a cinnamon tinge. Juveniles have cinnamon or buff barring on their upper- and underparts that remains fainly in subadults.<p>The other subspecies of the great antshrike differ from the nominate and each other thus:

Taxonomy

The great antshrike was described by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 and given the binomial name Thamnophilus major. The current genus Taraba was introduced by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1831. <p>The great antshrike has these ten subspecies:<p>The great antshrike is the only member of genus Taraba. Its closest relatives appear to be the fasciated and bamboo antshrikes of genus Cymbilaimus. The subspecies' vocalizations fall into two groups, T. m. melanocrissus through T. m. granadensis and T. m. semifasciatus through T. m. major. The first, found in Central America and mostly west of the Andes, may represent a separate species from the other, which are found east of the Andes. In addition, differences within the members of each group may not be significant enough in some cases to warrant subspecies status.

Scientific name

Taraba major

Authority

(Vieillot, 1816)

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Thamnophilidae

Genus

Taraba

Range and habitat

The subspecies of the great antshrike are distributed thus:<p>The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society has records of vagrant individuals in Uruguay.<p>The great antshrike inhabits a wide range of semi-humid to humid tropical zone landscapes, favoring in most of them areas of dense understorey vegetation. On the Pacific slope it does extend somewhat into the subtropical zone. The landscapes include gallery forest, savanna woodlands, younger secondary forest, the edges and clearings of evergreen forest, river islands, and locally drier but not arid areas. It is often associated with stands of bamboo. The exception to these general habitats is subspecies T. m. stagurus, which occurs in deciduous forest and taller parts of the caatinga. In elevation it occurs below 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in much of its range, but reaching 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in Costa Rica, 1,400 m (4,600 ft) in Colombia, 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Peru, and 2,200 m (7,200 ft) in Venezuela. It seldom exceeds 750 m (2,500 ft) in northern Central America.

Migration

Resident species

Behavior

Migration pattern: Resident species.

Conservation

Population trend: declining.

Population trend

declining