All species › Passerines › Antbirds › Dull-mantled Antbird
Dull-mantled Antbird | Sipia laemosticta
Grijskruinmiervogel | Hormiguero alimaculado | Formigueiro-de-manto-fosco
The Dull-mantled Antbird is a dark, short-tailed antbird of ravines and stream valleys in humid foothill forest of Central America, which in the guide area occurs only in the extreme north-west of Colombia, on the border with Panama. Magdalena Antbird and Esmeraldas Antbird were formerly included in this species. The red iris and the white dots on the wings are characteristic.
Voice
The male's song is a countable series of short notes: first three rising to level notes, then abruptly five evenly falling ones. The female answers with longer, raspy notes followed by two to four short, falling notes. Calls: short, burry, falling notes and sharp chips.
Recording: Jerome Fischer — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14 cm. The male has a blackish-grey head, neck and upper mantle, a dark rufous-brown back with a usually concealed white interscapular patch, black wing coverts with small white dots and a black throat. The breast and belly are slate-grey, the flanks and undertail coverts rufous-brown. The female is paler grey, with a black throat densely spotted or barred white and cinnamon-tinged wing dots. Both sexes have a red iris.
Confusion species
Magdalena Antbird Sipia palliata in northern Colombia and the Magdalena Valley has nearly identical plumage, with a chestnut lower back, rump and tail; song and range are the best features. In Esmeraldas Antbird Sipia nigricauda, on the Pacific slope farther south, the male is grey, without a brown back. Chestnut-backed Antbird Poliocrania exsul has blue skin around the eye and a dark iris.
Habitat
Floor and understorey of humid foothill and lowland forest, especially in ravines and on stream-side slopes with dense vegetation, and in regrowth on landslides and treefall gaps. In Central America from near sea level to about 1000 m. It lives in pairs close to the ground and searches for insects in leaf litter and low vegetation.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: only in the extreme north-west, along the border with Panama; its occurrence there is poorly documented. Older reports from northern Colombia and the Magdalena Valley refer to Magdalena Antbird. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Costa Rica and Panama.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
There are few records from the guide area. Search stream ravines in humid foothill forest along the border with Panama and listen for the countable series of short notes.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The population is probably declining; the species is sensitive to disturbance and disappears from fragmented forest. There are few data from the guide area.
Scientific name
Sipia laemosticta | (Salvin, 1865)
Salvin described the species in 1865 as Myrmeciza laemosticta; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Sipia was introduced in 1924 by Hellmayr. The genus name, introduced by Hellmayr in 1924, refers to Sipí in the Chocó, western Colombia. The species name comes from Greek laimos, 'throat', and stiktos, 'spotted'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Tucurrique, Cartago, Costa Rica.