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Grey-bellied Antbird | Ammonastes pelzelni
Grijsbuikmiervogel | Hormiguero ventrigrís | Formigueiro-de-barriga-cinza
The Grey-bellied Antbird is a stocky, almost entirely terrestrial antbird of white-sand forest in the north-western Amazon basin. It hops through the leaf litter of open caatinga forest with tall trees and a sparse understorey. In the guide area it occurs only in the east and south of the Colombian Amazon.
Voice
The song is an even series of about fifteen very high sree notes without pauses. The call is a short, high, rattling trill that fades away.
Recording: Mauricio Álvarez-Rebolledo (Colección de Sonidos Ambientales - Instituto Humboldt) — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm, with a fairly short tail. The male has a mottled grey-and-white face, a dark greyish-brown crown, a warm rufous back and rump and dark rufous-brown wings and tail; the blackish wing coverts have large pale buff tips. The throat and breast are black, bordered grey at the sides; the belly grades into ochre-buff. The female has similar upperparts with larger pale spots on the coverts and is mostly white below, with a blackish-scaled upper breast. The bill is black and the legs are pale brown.
Confusion species
Black-throated Antbird Myrmophylax atrothorax has a longer tail, smaller wing dots and, in the male, a dark rather than ochre-buff belly; it lives in dense thickets and forest edges. Yapacana Antbird Aprositornis disjuncta is grey above and white or pale buff below, without a black breast. Black-headed Antbird Percnostola rufifrons is larger, the male with a black head, and forages somewhat higher in the undergrowth.
Habitat
Mainly caatinga forest on white sand with tall trees and a sparse understorey, also denser white-sand forest with many bromeliads and the transition to igapó, up to about 400 m. It forages alone, in pairs or in family groups almost entirely on the ground, picking insects and spiders from leaf litter, curled dead leaves and moss, and sometimes climbing onto fallen trunks. It probably breeds in January and February; 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
In Colombia in southern Caquetá and in the far east of Guainía and Vaupés. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in south-western Amazonas state in Venezuela and in the far north-west of Brazil, along the upper Rio Negro.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search white-sand forest around Inírida and Mitú. Listen for the high, even song and scan the forest floor, where the bird hops through the leaf litter.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The population appears stable and its habitat lies in one of the parts of South America least affected by people.
Scientific name
Ammonastes pelzelni | (Sclater, 1890) (GBIF: Myrmeciza pelzelni)
Sclater described the species in 1890 as Myrmeciza pelzelni; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Ammonastes was introduced in 2013 by Bravo, Isler & Brumfield. The genus name combines Greek ammos, 'sand', and nastēs, 'inhabitant'. The species name honours August von Pelzeln (1825–1891), Austrian ornithologist. The specimen the first description was based on came from Marabitanas, Rio Negro, Brazil.