Alternative name: Gould's Wren
- Uropsila leucogastra
Identification
9.5 to 10 cm.
- Buffy grey lores, grey-white postocular supercilium, mid-brown area behind eye, mottled brown or grey ear-coverts gives a very open-faced look
- Medium brown crown and upperparts becoming rufescent on rump
- Medium brown primaries and secondaries with obscure darker bars on outer webs
- Medium brown upperside of tail
- Underside of tail with many fine dark bars
- Grey throat, chest and upper belly
- Buff flanks, thighs and vent
Sexes similar, juveniles with less prominent supercilium and more diffuse markings on ear-coverts.
Distribution
Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
Common in most of its range.
Taxonomy
Clements[1] recognizes five subspecies:
- U. l. leucogastra in Gulf lowlands of eastern Mexico (southern Tamaulipas to northern Oaxaca)
- U. l. musica in coastal plain of southern Mexico (Tabasco and northern Chiapas), northern Guatemala
- U. l. brachyura in Yucatán Peninsula and Belize
- U. l. hawkinsi in Honduras (Yoro)
- U. l. pacifica in southwest Mexico (Colima, Michoacán and Guerrero)
Gill and Donsker[2] includes musica in leucogastra, accepts brachyura, adds centralis (east-central Mexico) and restricta (southeast Mexico), includes hawkinsi in australis (Yucatan, Belize and Honduras) and accepts pacifica, therefore listening six subspecies.
Habitat
Different types of forest (from humid rainforest to semi-arid forest), often in thickets of wild pineapple in northeast Mexico.
Occurs from sea-level up to 500 m.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds on insects and spiders.
Forages in thick vegetation. May join mixed bird flocks following army ant swarms.
Breeding
Breeding season probably from late March to June. The nest is a oval ball with a downward-pointing funnel as entrance. It's made of fine grasses, lichens, spider egg cases and moss and placed 3-4 m above the ground in a thicket or in an acacia protected by symbiotic ants. Lays 4 eggs.
Movements
A sedentary 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) White-bellied Wren. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 18 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/White-bellied_Wren
