Bolivian Slaty-Antshrike

Identification

The Bolivian slaty antshrike is about 14 cm (5.5 in) long and weighs 18 to 20 g (0.63 to 0.71 oz). Members of genus Thamnophilus are largish members of the antbird family; all have stout bills with a hook like those of true shrikes. This species exhibits significant sexual dimorphism. Adult males have a gray forehead and a black crown. Their back is gray with a few black spots and a hidden white patch between their scapulars. Their face is gray. Their wings, scapulars, and wing coverts are black with white spots and edges. Their tail is black with white tips and spots on the feathers. Their underparts are light gray with much white on the belly. Adult females have a bright reddish-brown crown and yellowish olive-brown upperparts. Their wings are dark brown with white spots and edges on the scapulars and pale buff edges on the flight feathers. Their tail is dark brown with white tips and spots on the feathers. Their underparts are white in the center and light yellowish brown across the breast and on the sides, flanks, and crissum.

Taxonomy

The Bolivian slaty antshrike was described by the Austrian ornithologist August von Pelzeln in 1868 and given its current binomial name Thamnophilus sticturus. It was later treated as a subspecies of T. punctatus, which was then called the slaty antshrike. Following the results of a study published in 1997, the slaty antshrike was split into six species, of which the Bolivian slaty antshrike is one. To avoid confusion the remnant T. punctatus was given its present name of northern slaty antshrike.<p>The Bolivian slaty antshrike is monotypic.

Scientific name

Thamnophilus sticturus

Authority

Pelzeln, 1868

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Thamnophilidae

Genus

Thamnophilus

Range and habitat

The Bolivian slaty antshrike is found in the central Bolivian departments of Beni, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz, in adjoining extreme western parts of the Brazilian the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, and in far northern Paraguay's Alto Paraguay department. It inhabits the understorey to mid-storey of dry semi-deciduous forest, gallery forest, larger areas of more humid forest, and secondary forest. In elevation it reaches 600 m (2,000 ft) in Brazil and 950 m (3,100 ft) in Bolivia.

Migration

Resident species

Behavior

The Bolivian slaty antshrike is presumed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The diet of the Bolivian slaty antshrike has not been detailed but is assumed to be arthropods. It usually forages singly or in pairs. It usually forages in the understorey to mid-storey, mostly between 1 and 7 m (3 and 23 ft) of the ground. It hops through vegetation, gleaning prey while reaching from a perch; it also makes short upward sallies. It takes prey from leaves, branches, and vines. It is not known to join mixed-species feeding flocks or follow army ant swarms.<p>Nothing is known about the Bolivian slaty antshrike's breeding biology.<p>The Bolivian slaty antshrike's song is "a series starting slowly and speeding up into rattling trill, rises in frequency and intensity, reaching peak near end of trill, then falls off". Its call is "a 'caw' note" of variable length that sometimes becomes a "harsh, downward inflected growl".

Conservation

Population trend

unknown