- Myrmotherula longicauda
Identification
9-10 cm.
Male
- Black upperparts with white streaks
- Tipped white wing-coverts, flight-feathers edged white, tail edged and tipped white
- Prominent black malar streak
- White underparts, greyer on flanks and with black streaks on breast and flanks
Female
- Pale streaks
- Tips and edgings above often buff-tinged
- Pale buff throat and underparts
- More ochraceous across breast
- Thinner black streaks on sides
- australis deeper ochraceous buff
- pseudoaustralis like australis but with very pale wingbars
- soderstromi with a white belly
Similar species
Guianan Streaked Antwren has a less distinct malar stripe, a white interscapular patch, less distinct streaking on breast and 12 (rather than 10) rectrices.
Distribution
Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Still fairly common in its large range.
Taxonomy
Four subspecies recognized:
- M. l. soderstromi on the eastern slope of Andes of southern Colombia and northern Ecuador (Napo)
- M. l. pseudoaustralis on the eastern slope of northern Ecuador (Zamora-Chinchipe) and northern Peru (south to Pasco)
- M. l. longicauda in central Peru (Junín)
- M. l. australis from southeast Peru (Cusco, Madre de Dios and Puno) to northwest Bolivia
A recently found population in Loreto (Peru) has not yet been assigned to a subspecies.
Habitat
Moist lowland forest and montanes. Mostly in foothills at 400 to 1300 m, locally higher.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds on small insects and spiders.
Forages usually in pairs or singly, mostly in shrubby thickets and crowns of understorey saplings. A very active species moving in zigzag through the forest, only pausing for very short moments. Also in mixed-species flocks.
Breeding
No information.
Movements
Presumably a resident species.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2015. IOC World Bird Names (version 5.2). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2015)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Stripe-chested Antwren. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 6 October 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Stripe-chested_Antwren