Roraiman Antwren

A common but inconspicuous bird of tepui forest canopy. Usually seen from below; note long shape accentuated by heavy bill and long tail. Male is gray above and white below, with a black crown, bold white eyebrow, wing spotting, and extensively white undertail. Females are similar to males but have more brown tones in plumage. Forages sluggishly in canopy of tepui foothill forest, searching for insects along branches and in leaf clusters. More common at lower elevations than many other tepui endemics (sometimes below 500 m). Usually in pairs and best detected by voice; often follows mixed-species flocks but also found away from them. Contact call is a rubbery smacking, often doubled and repeated in long series by members of a pair. Song is a hoarse, emphatic series of laughing notes, decelerating and dropping slightly in pitch. Similar to Spot-tailed and Todd’s antwrens (and may overlap with latter at lower elevations) but substantially larger, with bolder markings and more white in tail; song is similar to that of Todd’s but longer and hoarser.

Identification

The Roraiman antwren is 12 to 13 cm (4.7 to 5.1 in) long and has the longest tail within genus Herpsilochmus. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a black crown and nape, a long pale gray to white supercilium, a black streak through the eye, and grayish ear coverts. Their back and rump are dark gray with white edges on many back feathers and blackish patches. They have white-edged black scapulars and a white patch between them. Their wings are black with white-tipped coverts and flight feathers with white edges towards the end. Their tail is black with white feather tips, white spots on the central feathers, and white edges on the outer feathers. Their throat and underparts are mostly gray with a white belly center. Adult females have white spots on their crown, a buff tinge to the sides of their neck, light buff breast and sides, and smaller tail spots than males. They are otherwise like males. Males of subspecies H. r. kathleenae are like the nominate. Females have grayer upperparts and pale gray (not light buff) breast and sides.

Taxonomy

The Roraiman antwren was first described by the Austrian ornithologist Carl Hellmayr in 1903 with the type locality in Guyana on Mount Roraima. Its relationship to others of its genus is unclear but it apparently is most closely related to the spot-backed antwren (H. dorsimaculatus).<p>The Roraiman antwren has two subspecies, the nominate H. r. roraimae (Hellmayr, 1903) and H. r. kathleenae (Phelps Jr & Dickerman, 1980).

Scientific name

Herpsilochmus roraimae

Authority

Hellmayr, 1903

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Thamnophilidae

Genus

Herpsilochmus

Range and habitat

The Roraiman antwren is a bird of the tepui region where southern Venezuela, western Guyana, and northwestern Brazil meet. The nominate subspecies is found in Venezuela's Bolívar state, extreme northern Roraima in Brazil, and west-central Guyana. Subspecies H. r. kathleenae is found in Venezuela's Bolívar and Amazonas states and extreme northern Amazonas state in Brazil. The species inhabits the subcanopy and canopy of wet evergreen forest, at lower elevations in taller trees on rich soil. It also occurs in more stunted forest towards the tops of tepuis and the ecotone between the stunted forest and the brushy savanna above it. In elevation it ranges between 700 and 2,000 m (2,300 and 6,600 ft).

Migration

Resident species