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Chami Antpitta | Grallaria alvarezi
Chamímierpitta | Tororoí chamí | Tovacuçu-chamí
The Chami Antpitta was described as a new species in 2020 in the split of Rufous Antpitta. The name refers to the Emberá Chamí, an Indigenous people of the Western Andes of Colombia. It is a small, dark rufous ground bird of high montane forest and cloud forest.
Voice
As in the other species of the rufula group, the song differs mainly in pace, number and pitch of the notes. It gives short series of clear whistled notes and single call notes; a recording of the song is the main aid to identification.
Recording: Iván Lau — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14–15 cm, small, round and almost tailless, on long dark legs, with a dark bill. The upperparts and underparts are fairly dark, uniform rufous-brown, the underparts hardly paler. A narrow pale ring around the eye. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Equatorial Antpitta Grallaria saturata further south in the Central Andes is very similar and is separated mainly by song and range. Muisca Antpitta Grallaria rufula lives only in the Eastern Andes. Bicolored Antpitta Grallaria rufocinerea has grey underparts. Rusty-breasted Antpitta Grallaricula ferrugineipectus is smaller, with a pale crescent in front of the eye and a pale belly.
Habitat
Dense undergrowth and bamboo in humid high montane forest and cloud forest, also in secondary forest, roughly between 2300 and 3600 m. It searches the ground for invertebrates. Little is known about breeding.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Only in Colombia, in the Western Andes from Antioquia south along the border of Chocó, Risaralda and Caldas to northern Valle del Cauca, and in the northern Central Andes in Antioquia and Caldas. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen at dawn in the high cloud forest of the Western Andes, for example along the road to Cerro Montezuma at Tatamá in Risaralda, for short series of whistled notes. The bird sings from dense cover and sometimes comes briefly onto the road.
Conservation status
Not evaluated as a separate species; Rufous Antpitta in the broad sense is listed as Least Concern. Part of the range lies in protected areas such as Tatamá; elsewhere the montane forest is fragmented by agriculture and cattle ranching.
Scientific name
Grallaria alvarezi | Cuervo, Cadena, Isler & Chesser, 2020
Cuervo, Cadena, Isler & Chesser described the species in 2020 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Grallaria was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. The genus name comes from New Latin grallarius, 'stilt-walker', referring to the long legs. The species name honours the Colombian ornithologist Mauricio Álvarez Rebolledo. The specimen the first description was based on came from PNN Tatamá, Risaralda, Colombia.