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Bolivian Slaty Antshrike | Thamnophilus sticturus
Boliviaanse mierklauwier | Batará pizarroso boliviano | Choca-boliviana
Bolivian Slaty Antshrike is a small grey antshrike with white wing spots of the dry and semi-humid forests of eastern Bolivia. It is one of the six species into which the former Slaty Antshrike has been split and closely resembles Natterer's Slaty Antshrike. Outside Bolivia it occurs only in adjacent western Brazil and the far north of Paraguay.
Voice
The song is a trill that starts slowly, accelerates and rises in pitch and intensity, peaks just before the end and then drops off. The call is a kaw of variable length, sometimes a harsh, downslurred growl.
Recording: Jacob Wijpkema — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14 cm. The male has a grey forehead, a black crown, a grey back with a few black spots and a concealed white patch, black wings with white spots and edges, a black tail with white tips and pale grey underparts with much white on the belly. The female has a bright rufous crown, yellowish olive-brown upperparts, dark brown wings and tail with white spots and a whitish centre to the underparts, shading to pale yellowish brown on the breast, flanks and undertail coverts.
Confusion species
Natterer's Slaty Antshrike Thamnophilus stictocephalus is almost identical; the male is somewhat darker, with a blacker forehead and less white on the belly, and the song does not rise at the end. Amazonian Antshrike Thamnophilus amazonicus has a female with an orange-brown head and breast. The female Variable Antshrike Thamnophilus caerulescens lacks the rufous crown; that species lives mainly higher up, in the Andean foothills and the Chaco.
Habitat
Understorey and mid-storey of dry semi-deciduous forest, gallery forest, larger tracts of humid forest and secondary forest; in Bolivia up to 950 m. It lives in pairs and searches foliage and branches for insects.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Bolivia: in the lowlands of Beni, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil and in the far north of Paraguay (Alto Paraguay).
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search Chiquitano dry forest around Santa Cruz de la Sierra and San José de Chiquitos. Listen for the rising, accelerating trill in the understorey.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Chiquitano dry forest is being converted to farmland on a large scale, but the species also tolerates secondary forest.
Scientific name
Thamnophilus sticturus | Pelzeln, 1868
Pelzeln described the species in 1868 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Thamnophilus was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. The genus name comes from Greek thamnos, 'bush', and philos, 'loving': bush-lover. The species name comes from Greek stiktos, 'spotted', and oura, 'tail'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Engenho do Gama, Mato Grosso, Brazil.