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Large-billed Antwren | Herpsilochmus longirostris
Langsnavelmiersluiper | Tiluchí piquilargo | Chorozinho-de-bico-comprido
The Large-billed Antwren is the largest Herpsilochmus, with a long bill for an antwren. It is a species of gallery forest and woodland patches in the savannas of central Brazil; in the guide area it occurs only in northeastern Bolivia. Male and female differ clearly.
Voice
The song is a series of loud notes that accelerates into a trill; male and female often sing in duet. Calls are short, nasal notes.
Recording: Allen T. Chartier — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13 cm, with a long, fairly stout bill and a long tail. The male has a black crown with white spots, a long white supercilium and a black eyestripe. The back is grey with black; the wings are black with white wingbars. The tail is black with white tips. The underparts are pale grey to whitish. The female has a rufous crown, an ochre head and ochre-yellow underparts.
Confusion species
Black-capped Antwren Herpsilochmus atricapillus is smaller with a shorter bill; the female has a black, spotted crown. Rusty-backed Antwren Formicivora rufa has a rufous back and lives low in scrub. Variable Antshrike Thamnophilus caerulescens is larger, with a thicker, hooked bill.
Habitat
Mid-levels and canopy of gallery forest, semi-deciduous forest and woodland patches in savanna (cerradão), also at forest edges; in the lowlands. It searches in pairs for insects in dense foliage and vines, sometimes with mixed flocks. The nest is an open cup in a horizontal fork of a branch.
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 northeast, mainly in Beni and northern Santa Cruz. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in central Brazil and northeastern Paraguay.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search gallery forest and woodland patches along rivers in the savannas of Beni, for example around Trinidad, and listen for the duet of male and female.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Locally fairly common; its savanna habitat is, however, affected by clearing and fires.
Scientific name
Herpsilochmus longirostris | Pelzeln, 1868
Pelzeln described the species in 1868 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Herpsilochmus was introduced in 1847 by Cabanis. The genus name combines Greek herpō, 'to creep about', and lokhmē, 'thicket, copse'. The species name combines Latin longus, 'long', and rostrum, 'bill'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil.