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Black-tailed Antbird - BirdForum Opus

Male
Photo by Robert Scanlon
Peru, January 2005
Myrmoborus melanurus

Identification

12.5 cm
Male

  • Dark slaty grey
  • Lighter on belly
  • Blackish face, throat, wings and tail
  • Wing-coverts tipped white forming narrow wing-bars
  • Semi-concealed white dorsal patch
  • Bright red iris

Female

  • Brown upperparts and tail
  • Indistinct dusky mask
  • Whitish underparts
  • Buff tinge on breast
  • Brown on sides
  • Wing-bars as in male.

Distribution

South America: found in tropical north-eastern Peru and adjacent Brazil (extreme western Amazonas).
Patchily distributed in its small range, apparently rare and poorly known.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species[1].

Habitat

Swamps, low bushy forest with tangled vines; small rivers, creeks, islands, and oxbow lakes.

Behaviour

Like other species of this genus pounds tail emphatically downwards and then raises it slowly.

Diet

Feeds presumably on insects and spiders, but details little known.
Forages usually close to the ground, hopping on suspended branches and on vines in woody undergrowth.

Breeding

Nesting recorded in July. The described nest was rather bulky and roughly globular and made of dead plant material. It was concealed on the ground in a clump of grass.

Movements

Presumably a resident species.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliot, and D Christie, eds. 2003. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 8: Broadbills to Tapaculos. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8487334504
  3. BirdLife International

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.

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