Inambari Gnatcatcher
Polioptila attenboroughi
Recently described, inconspicuous and rarely seen bird of rainforest canopy. Small and slender with a long tail; mostly dark gray with a broken white eyering, white belly, and white outer tail feathers. Inhabits canopy of tall forest, especially in regions with sandy soils. Usually seen with mixed-species flocks as it forages actively in outer foliage, sallying for insects and gleaning from leaves, moving long tail from side to side like other gnatcatchers. Thin and indistinct call notes are easily overlooked among calls of other species in flocks, but distinctive shape, active behavior, and long tail with extensive white should clinch identification. Extremely similar to other gnatcatchers of the Guianan Gnatcatcher complex, but no overlap in range. Distinguished from Tropical Gnatcatcher by uniform gray body plumage and lack of a black cap, and from Tooth-billed Wren by slimmer shape and smaller size, lacking any black barring in the plumage.
Identification
The holotype Inambari gnatcatcher, an adult male, weighed 6 g (0.21 oz). Its head, nape, and neck are a uniform plumbeous gray. The throat, breast, upper belly, and flanks are also plumbeous gray, palest near the bill. The lower belly is white. It has a broken white eye ring. The innermost feathers of its tail are black and the outermost approximately 80% white, with those between intergrading.
Taxonomy
The Inambari gnatcatcher was described as a new species in 2013. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC/AOS), the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), and the Clements taxonomy accepted it as a distinct species beginning in mid-2019. It had earlier been treated as a subspecies of the Guianan gnatcatcher (Polioptila guianensis), and BirdLife International (BLI) retains it there as of December 2020.<p>The Inambari gnatcatcher is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Polioptila attenboroughi
- Authority
- Whittaker, Aleixo, Whitney, Smith, BT & Klicka, 2013
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Polioptilidae
- Genus
- Polioptila
Range and habitat
The Inambari gnatcatcher's full range is not known. All of the few records are from the Brazilian central Amazon Basin south of the Rio Solimões (the Upper Amazon) and west of the Rio Madeira. The region is called the Inambari area of endemism. "So far as is known, Inambari Gnatcatcher inhabits the canopy of tall, humid, upland sandy-soil forest" at less than 500 m (1,600 ft) of elevation.
Behavior
The details of the Inambari gnatcatcher's diet is unknown but it is probably small invertebrates like that of other Polioptila gnatcatchers. It forages alone or in pairs and seems to always associate with mixed-species foraging flocks. It mostly gleans prey from foliage but also sallies out to catch flying insects.<p>"The nest, eggs, and breeding biology of Inambari Gnatcatcher are completely unknown."<p>The Inambari gnatcatcher's loudsong is "an evenly paced series of six notes at a nearly level frequency" [1]. It also has a more complex song.
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Chocolate-brown nunlet of mature rainforest. Usually fairly rare within its range; seems to occur mostly in upland ‘terra firme’ rainforest, where it occurs singly or in pairs in the undergrowth. Even-brown plumage and dull-orange patch at base of bill distinguish it from Rufous-capped Nunlet, which has a bright red-orange crown and orange throat and breast. Its song is a slow series of rising whistled “weep” notes, given at a rate of about one note per second.
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Oreopholus ruficollis
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