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Peruvian Warbling Antbird | Hypocnemis peruviana
Peruaanse orpheusmierkruiper | Hormiguero peruano | Cantador-sinaleiro
The Peruvian Warbling Antbird is the most widespread warbling antbird of western Amazonia and a regular inhabitant of the understorey of lowland forest. Pairs defend a territory all year round and often sing in duet. Where it occurs together with the Yellow-breasted Warbling Antbird, the two species live in different vegetation and respond to each other's song.
Voice
The male sings a series of six to nine clear whistles, the last ones shorter, lower and hoarsely rasping; the female often joins with a shorter series of her own. Calls are a rasping cher and a hoarse chee-chee.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11–12 cm, small and compact, with a fairly short tail. The crown is black with white streaks, with a white supercilium and a black eyestripe. The mantle is streaked black and white, the rest of the upperparts olive-brown with a rufous rump. The wings are black with two white wingbars. The throat and breast are white, with black streaks on the breast; the flanks are bright rufous. The female has ochre spots on the crown and a slightly paler buff breast.
Confusion species
Yellow-breasted Warbling Antbird Hypocnemis subflava has clearly yellow underparts and lives mainly in bamboo and at forest edges in the foothills of south-eastern Peru and Bolivia. Imeri Warbling Antbird Hypocnemis flavescens lives further north in Colombia and is yellowish below. Yellow-browed Antbird Hypocnemis hypoxantha is bright yellow below, with a yellow supercilium. Spot-backed Antbird Hylophylax naevius has a spotted back, a black throat in the male and a shorter tail.
Habitat
Dense understorey, vine tangles and growth around treefalls in terra firme and várzea lowland forest, also in secondary forest and at forest edges, up to about 1000 m in the foothills. It searches for insects and spiders among leaves and thin twigs, usually up to a few metres above the ground, sometimes in mixed flocks. The nest is an open cup low in the vegetation.
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 and lower foothills. Peru: in the Amazonian lowlands over almost the whole east of the country. Bolivia: in the north, in Pando, Beni and northern La Paz. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Amazonian Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen in the early morning along forest trails and in openings in lowland forest, for example in eastern Ecuador, around Iquitos or in Madre de Dios. The birds usually keep to dense thickets, but come to the edge when a pair is singing.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Common in a very large range; the species tolerates forest edges and secondary forest.
Scientific name
Hypocnemis peruviana | Taczanowski, 1884
Taczanowski described the species in 1884 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Hypocnemis was introduced in 1847 by Cabanis. The genus name combines Greek hupo, 'somewhat like', and knēmis, 'leggings'. The species name refers to Peru, not necessarily the exact type locality. The specimen the first description was based on came from Yurimaguas, Peru.