Vorstman's Guideto the birds of the Andes and West Coast

All species › Passerines › Antbirds

Antbirds | Thamnophilidae

Mierklauwieren | Hormigueros | Antbirds

With 166 species in 55 genera this is one of the largest songbird families in the guide, centred on the humid lowland forest on the eastern side of the Andes, along the Amazonian foothills, with a smaller number of species in the Chocó and in the cloud forest on the slopes. It includes antshrikes with a heavy bill hooked at the tip, small, active antwrens in the foliage and antbirds of the undergrowth. The colours are sober: males are often black or grey with small white spots on the wing, females brown or rufous, and many species have a hidden white patch on the back that shows when the bird is excited. They eat insects and spiders. A number of species follow swarms of army ants almost exclusively and catch the insects and other small animals that flee ahead of the ants; the ants themselves they do not eat. Dozens of birds of several species may gather around a single swarm. Pairs stay together for years in a fixed territory, which they defend with simple but distinctive songs, often as a duet. The nest is an open cup, often slung in a horizontal fork, and both parents incubate the clutch of usually two eggs.

Native species 164 species

Species that occur here by nature: breeding birds, winter visitors and passage migrants. They are arranged by genus, in the sequence of the list.

Xenornis 1 species

Microrhopias 1 species

Dichrozona 1 species

Hypocnemoides 2 species

Pithys 2 species

Hylophylax 3 species

Epinecrophylla 6 species

Batara 1 species

Sclateria 1 species

Gymnopithys 1 species

Phlegopsis 2 species

Myrmorchilus 1 species

Ammonastes 1 species

Taraba 1 species

Myrmoderus 1 species

Pyriglena 1 species

Thamnomanes 4 species

Cercomacroides 4 species

Isleria 1 species

Neoctantes 1 species

Hafferia 3 species

Myrmophylax 1 species

Drymophila 5 species

Percnostola 2 species

Frederickena 2 species

Thamnistes 2 species

Myrmelastes 5 species

Myrmornis 1 species

Ampelornis 1 species

Cymbilaimus 2 species

Oneillornis 2 species

Poliocrania 1 species

Dysithamnus 4 species

Euchrepomis 4 species

Sakesphorus 1 species

Myrmeciza 1 species

Myrmoborus 5 species

Sciaphylax 2 species

Herpsilochmus 11 species

Clytoctantes 1 species

Myrmochanes 1 species

Akletos 2 species

Sipia 4 species

Formicivora 4 species

Thamnophilus 24 species

Hypocnemis 6 species

Rhegmatorhina 2 species

Gymnocichla 1 species

Phaenostictus 1 species

Aprositornis 1 species

Pygiptila 1 species

Willisornis 1 species

Cercomacra 4 species

Megastictus 1 species

Myrmotherula 19 species

Vagrants 2 species

Birds blown in from other continents. They have no range here, and so no distribution map.