Batara unicolore

Identification

The uniform antshrike is 14.5 to 17 cm (5.7 to 6.7 in) long and weighs about 24 g (0.85 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 of the nominate subspecies are mostly deep gray or blackish gray. They sometimes have white tips on their outer tail feathers. Adult females have a rufous crown and a gray face. Their upperparts are rufous brown and their underparts pale rufous brown. Immatures of both sexes are similar to adult females. Both sexes have a gray-white to whitish gray iris, a black bill, and gray or blue-gray legs and feet. Subspecies T. u. grandior is very similar to the nominate, though males more frequently have small white tips on their outer tail feathers. Males of T. u. caudatus are essentially the same as males of grandior. Females are darker and more rufous than the nominate and grandior females.

Taxonomie

The uniform antshrike was described by the English zoologist Philip Sclater in 1859 and given the binomial name Dysithamnus unicolor. It was later transferred to genus Thamnophilus, which had been erected in 1816 by Louis Pierre Vieillot. The uniform antshrike, the white-shouldered antshrike (T. aethiops), and the upland antshrike (T. aroyae) form a superspecies or are sister species.<p>The uniform antshrike has three subspecies, the nominate T. u. unicolor (Sclater, PL, 1859), T. u. grandior (Hellmayr, 1924), and T. u. caudatus (Carriker, 1933).

Nom scientifique

Thamnophilus unicolor

Autorité

(Sclater, PL, 1859)

Ordre

Passériformes

Famille

Thamnophilidés

Genre

Thamnophilus

Répartition et habitat

The uniform antshrike has a disjunct distribution. The nominate subspecies is found on the Pacific slope of the Andes for almost their entire length in Ecuador. Subspecies T. u. grandior is found in all three ranges of the Colombian Andes and also on the east slope of the Andes from southern Morona-Santiago Province in southeastern Ecuador south into northern Peru as far as northern San Martín Department. T. u. caudatus is found on the eastern slope of the Andes from southern San Martín south locally to Cuzco Department. The species inhabits the understorey of humid montane forest. Though it does occur in the forest interior it favors the forest's edges and gaps caused by fallen trees. In elevation it ranges between 1,200 and 2,200 m (3,900 and 7,200 ft) in Colombia, mostly between 1,000 and 2,000 m (3,300 and 6,600 ft) in Ecuador, and between 1,250 and 2,300 m (4,100 and 7,500 ft) in Peru.

Migration

Espèce sédentaire

Comportement

Mode de migration: Espèce sédentaire.

Conservation

Tendance de la population: en déclin.

Tendance de la population

en déclin