All species › Passerines › Antbirds › Fulvous Antshrike
Fulvous Antshrike | Frederickena fulva
Rosse marmermierklauwier | Batará leonado | Borralhara-fulva
The Fulvous Antshrike is the north-western counterpart of the Undulated Antshrike and is sometimes treated as a subspecies of it. It lives in the dense, vine-covered understorey of Amazonian lowland forest north of the Amazon and the Marañón. The species is rare, lives hidden and is noticed mainly by its voice.
Voice
The song is a steadily repeated series of whistles. The usual call is a long, nasal, downslurred snarl; also a descending squeal and a loud, repeated chee-chee-chee.
Recording: Patricio Mena Valenzuela — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
22–25 cm, bulky, with a crest and a heavy, black, hooked bill. The male is black with irregular, narrow white bars over the whole body except the throat; on the face and crest the bars are broken into small dots. The female is rich cinnamon with wavy black bars, a darker rufous crest barred black and a black tail with narrow grey bars.
Confusion species
Undulated Antshrike Frederickena unduliger is nearly identical and lives south of the Amazon and the Marañón; the song differs. Fasciated Antshrike Cymbilaimus lineatus is smaller, with a red iris and finer, regular barring, and often lives higher up in vines.
Habitat
Dense, vine-covered understorey of humid lowland forest, mainly terra firme, preferably at openings such as treefalls and along streams; mostly up to about 700 m, in Peru up to about 1100 m. Dependent on mature forest. It searches dense vegetation for large insects and other arthropods. Little is known about the nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: in the south-east, in Caquetá, Putumayo and Amazonas. Ecuador: in the eastern lowlands. Peru: in the north, south to the Marañón and possibly farther. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Beyond that possibly in the far north-west of Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen in terra firme forest in eastern Ecuador, for example along the Napo, for the series of whistles and the long, nasal call, and search low down at treefalls and vine tangles. The bird usually stays in cover.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated as a separate species; in the broad sense, together with Undulated Antshrike, Least Concern. Rare to uncommon; dependent on mature forest and therefore sensitive to fragmentation.
Scientific name
Frederickena fulva | Zimmer, 1944
Zimmer described the species in 1944 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Frederickena was introduced in 1918 by Chubb. The genus name honours Frederick Vavasour McConnell (1868–1914), English ornithologist, explorer in British Guiana and collector. The species name comes from Latin fulvus, 'tawny'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Río Suno, Ecuador.