- Cercomacroides laeta
Identification
13.5-14.5cm.
Male
- Blackish-grey plumage, greyer below
- White interscapular patch
- Narrowly tipped white wing-coverts and outer rectrices
- waimiri darker and purer grey, without pale tips on rectrices
Female
- Olive-grey upperparts and ear-coverts
- Browner wings and tail, wing-coverts cinnamon edged
- Vestigial interscapular patch
- Tawny-buff throat and underparts, tinged olive flanks
- waimiri with orange-cinnamon ear-coverts and dark grey wing-coverts with prominent cinnamon-brown edges
- sabinoi with variably pale cinnamon underparts
Distribution
Patchily distributed in Brazil.
Nominate race locally fairly common, waimiri uncommon, sabinoi rare.
Taxonomy
Three subspecies recognized:
- C. l. waimiri in north-central Amazonian Brazil and extreme southern Guyana
- C. l. laeta in southeastern Amazonian Brazil (eastern Pará, western Maranhão)
- C. l. sabinoi in coastal northeast Brazil (Pernambuco and Alagoas)
Formerly considered conspecific with Dusky Antbird.
Formerly placed in genus Cercomacra.
Habitat
Moist lowland forests, usually near water.
Occurs up to 300m, 600m in eastern Brazil.
Behaviour
Diet
Feeds on insects and spiders.
Forages in pairs or small groups on or close to the ground. Usually not in mixed-species flocks.
An active forager, progressing by short hops, then pausing with tail held level with body or slightly cocked and scanning for prey. Shallowly flicks both wings when foraging.
Breeding
Not much known. Nests were found in February to March. The nest is bag-shaped and made of black fibres, It has a small entrance and it's placed 25-40 cm above the ground deep in second growth thicket. Lays 2 eggs.
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. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- 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
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Willis's Antbird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 14 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Willis%27s_Antbird
