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Plain-throated Antwren | Isleria hauxwelli
Grijsbuikmiersluiper | Hormiguerito de Hauxwell | Choquinha-de-garganta-clara
The Plain-throated Antwren is a small, short-tailed antwren of the undergrowth of lowland rainforest in western Amazonia. Unlike many other antwrens it rarely travels with mixed flocks, but lives in pairs close to the ground, often along streams. The male is grey with black wings bearing broad white bars.
Voice
The song is a series of high, thin whistles that rise slightly in pitch. The call is a short, sharp 'cheek'.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
9–10 cm, stocky, with a very short tail. The male is plain grey, including the throat; the wing coverts are black with broad white tips forming two or three distinct wing bars, and the short tail has white tips. The female has greyish-brown upperparts, black wing coverts with buff tips and warm orange-brown to rufous underparts.
Confusion species
The male Grey Antwren Myrmotherula menetriesii has a black throat patch, narrower wing bars and a longer tail, and lives higher in the midstorey. Leaden Antwren Myrmotherula assimilis has narrow wing bars and lives in riverine forest. Banded Antbird Dichrozona cincta is larger, with a long bill and a white band across the rump, and walks on the forest floor.
Habitat
Undergrowth of humid lowland terra firme and foothill forest, often in damp hollows and along streams, mostly below 1000 m. Pairs glean insects and spiders from leaves and twigs up to about 2 m above the ground, and sometimes follow army ant swarms. The nest is a cup placed low in the undergrowth.
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, Amazonas and Vaupés. Ecuador: widespread in the eastern lowlands. Peru: widespread in the Amazonian lowlands east of the Andes. Bolivia: in the north, in Pando, Beni and northern La Paz. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Brazilian Amazonia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Walk slowly along forest trails through terra firme forest, for example in Yasuní or Tambopata, and watch for movement low in the undergrowth along streams. Pairs often respond to each other's calls.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is fairly common in undisturbed lowland forest, but disappears where the forest is cleared.
Scientific name
Isleria hauxwelli | (Sclater, 1857)
Sclater described the species in 1857 as Formicivora hauxwelli; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Isleria was introduced in 2012 by Bravo, Chesser & Brumfield. The genus name honours the American ornithologists Morton and Phyllis Isler, specialists in antbirds. The species name honours John Hauxwell, the English collector who obtained the type specimen in the Peruvian Amazon. The specimen the first description was based on came from Chamicuros, Loreto, Peru.