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Salvadori's Antwren | Myrmotherula minor
Salvadori's miersluiper | Hormiguerito de Salvadori | Choquinha-pequena
Salvadori's Antwren is a small grey antwren of the Atlantic Forest of south-eastern Brazil. It has not been recorded with certainty in the guide area; an old museum specimen labelled Iquitos in Peru and a few sound recordings from eastern Colombia are regarded as uncertain.
Voice
The song is a short series of high, clear notes. Calls are short, high notes.
Recording: Mateus Gonçalves Santos — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
9 cm, small, with a short tail. The male is grey, with a black throat and blackish wing coverts with white tips. The female is olive-brown above and pale buff below, with a paler throat.
Confusion species
In the guide area, Grey Antwren Myrmotherula menetriesii and Long-winged Antwren Myrmotherula longipennis resemble it most; both are common in the Amazonian lowlands and are the first candidates for any grey antwren there. In the Atlantic Forest it lives alongside other grey Myrmotherula species; song and female plumage are the best features there.
Habitat
Understorey and middle storey of humid lowland and hill forest and mature secondary forest in the Atlantic Forest, mostly below 900 m. Pairs glean insects from leaves and twigs, often with mixed flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Not reliably recorded in the guide area: there are no confirmed records from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia or the Galápagos. The range lies in south-eastern Brazil, roughly from Espírito Santo to Santa Catarina.
How and when to look
Not to be expected in the guide area. To see the species, search lowland Atlantic Forest in south-eastern Brazil for understorey mixed flocks.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. Most of the Atlantic Forest has been cleared and the remaining forest is fragmented; the species depends on humid lowland forest.
Scientific name
Myrmotherula minor | Salvadori, 1864
Salvadori described the species in 1864 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Myrmotherula was introduced in 1858 by Sclater. The genus name is a diminutive of Myrmothera (Greek murmos, 'ant', and thēras, 'hunter'): little ant-hunter. The species name is Latin minor, 'smaller'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Brazil (as described).