Band-tailed Antbird
Hypocnemoides maculicauda
Small short-tailed antbird found around still and slow-moving water in humid forest. Medium gray; tail black, with a broad white terminal band. Males have a black throat; females are lighter underneath. Forages low at the water’s edge and in vegetation overhanging the water around oxbow lakes and streams. The male’s song is an ascending series of whistles accelerating into a harsh descending series; it can be attention-grabbing with its grating snarling ending.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Hypocnemoides maculicauda
- Authority
- (Pelzeln, 1868)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Thamnophilidae
- Genus
- Hypocnemoides
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Spotted Woodcreeper
Xiphorhynchus erythropygius
Medium to large woodcreeper of humid evergreen and pine-evergreen forest in highlands and foothills. Feeds at all levels on trunks and larger branches, often at bromeliads. Straightish and rather stout bill is dark above and pale below. Note the pale buff spectacles and distinct pale spotting and scalloping on head, breast, and back (populations south of western Honduras lack spotting on back.)
Southern Lapwing
Vanellus chilensis
Raucous, conspicuous shorebird. Distinctive color pattern with black breast, white belly, gray head, and bronzy shoulder. Wings boldly patterned in flight. Often in pairs or small flocks in open habitats, usually near water but also in dry pastures. Loud grating call is a good clue to its presence.
Steel-blue Whydah
Vidua hypocherina
A nest parasite that lays its eggs in the nests of Black-cheeked and Black-faced Waxbills. As with other whydahs, breeding males are distinctive, whereas non-breeding males and females are drab and inconspicuous. Breeding males are glossy blue-black with elongated central tail feathers. Non-breeding males and females have a brownish back, a heavily striped face, and a whitish bill and legs. Generally uncommon in rather dry savanna and woodland. Non-breeding male and female can be cautiously separated from other whydahs and indigobirds by their pale bill and legs. Not very vocal, but does imitate the waxbills that it parasitizes.
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