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Rufous-backed Stipplethroat | Epinecrophylla haematonota
Grijsborstmiersluiper | Hormiguerito dorsirrojo | Choquinha-de-garganta-carijó
The Rufous-backed Stipplethroat is an understorey antwren of the western Amazon, with a rufous back and a white-stippled throat. In current taxonomy it also includes forms that were formerly treated as separate species. It forages in hanging dead leaves, usually in mixed flocks.
Voice
The song is a short series of high, thin whistles falling in pitch. The call is a dry, short chik.
Recording: GABRIEL LEITE — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11 cm. The male has an olive-brown head, a rufous back and rump, and blackish wing coverts with buff spots. The throat is black with white stippling, the breast and flanks grey. The female has an ochre throat and breast without black. The tail is brown and the iris dark.
Confusion species
Rufous-tailed Stipplethroat Epinecrophylla erythrura is larger, with a rufous tail. Ornate Stipplethroat Epinecrophylla ornata has a greyer head and underparts and white wing spots; the female has a blackish, white-stippled throat. Foothill Stipplethroat Epinecrophylla spodionota lives higher, in foothill forest, and has an olive-brown back without rufous. White-eyed Stipplethroat Epinecrophylla leucophthalma has a pale iris.
Habitat
Understorey of humid lowland terra firme rainforest, locally in the foothills up to about 900 m. It forages in pairs with understorey mixed flocks, hanging from clusters of dead leaves to find arthropods. The nest is a ball of dead leaves with a side entrance, 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 southeast. Ecuador: in the eastern lowlands. Peru: over much of the Amazon lowlands. Bolivia: locally in the north. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in southern Venezuela and western Amazonian Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search understorey mixed flocks in terra firme forest, for example along trails in eastern Ecuador or northeastern Peru, and watch for birds probing dead leaves.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Fairly common in extensive forest; locally declining through deforestation.
Scientific name
Epinecrophylla haematonota | (Sclater, 1857)
Sclater described the species in 1857 as Formicivora haematonota; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Epinecrophylla was introduced in 2006 by Isler & Brumfield. The genus name combines Greek epi, 'on', nekros, 'dead', and phullon, 'leaf', for the habit of foraging in hanging dead leaves. The species name comes from Greek haima, 'blood', and nōtos, 'back', for the rufous back. The specimen the first description was based on came from Chamicuros, Loreto, Peru.