Mayan Antthrush - BirdForum Opus

Race intermedius
Photo © by shadowman
Mayflower Bocawina National Park, Belize, February, 2005

Formicarius moniliger

Identification

15-18 cm, females slightly smaller than males but otherwise identical.

• Brownish-olive upperside including the wings
• Black throat and sides of head
• Lower edge of throat bordered by rufous which continues into a patch on rear sides of head
• Breast and belly medium to dark grey
• Undertail coverts dull brown

Similar species

Where living near the Black-faced Antthrush, notice that the latter species lacks rufous below the black throat and has rufous on undertail coverts.

Distribution

Caribbean slope from Mexico (southern Veracruz and northern Oaxaca) to central Honduras.

Taxonomy

Formerly included in Black-faced Antthrush.

Subspecies

Three subspecies are recognized^[1].

• F. m. moniliger

  Caribbean slope of southeastern Mexico (except the Yucatán Peninsula), north to southern Veracruz and northern Oaxaca

• F. m. pallidus

  Southeastern Mexico (Yucatán Peninsula)

• F. m. intermedius

  From eastern Guatemala and Belize south to central Honduras

Habitat

A variety of humid forests. In Honduras seems to prefer very steep terrain. Found from sea level to 1800 m asl.

Behaviour

Feeds on a variety of invertebrates including land snails and insects. These are mainly caught while the bird is walking on the ground. Frequently walks around with its tail cocked similar to a rail or large wren.

Vocalisation

These birds of southeastern Mexico to northern Honduras has a song of one whistled note followed by usually at least 8 fast-paced whistling notes.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Patten, M. A., J. van Dort, and P. F. D. Boesman (2021). Mayan Antthrush (Formicarius moniliger), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bkfant2.01

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Mayan Antthrush. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 27 December 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Mayan_Antthrush

External Links

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