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Variable Antshrike | Thamnophilus caerulescens
Grijskapmierklauwier | Batará variable | Choca-da-mata
The Variable Antshrike is a small antshrike with a heavy, hook-tipped bill, named for the marked differences in colour between its subspecies. In the guide area it lives in scrub and forest edges on the eastern slope of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia. Pairs often keep hidden in dense vegetation and give themselves away by their calls.
Voice
The song is an accelerating series of short, nasal notes ending in a slightly lower final note, as in many antshrikes. Growling and plaintive calls are also given. Both sexes sing, often alternately.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14–16 cm, with a short crest that is raised when excited and a fairly long tail. In the Andes the male is mostly dark slate-grey to blackish, with a blacker crown, white spots and fringes on the wing coverts and white tips to the tail feathers; subspecies in the Bolivian lowlands are paler grey. The female is olive-brown above with a more rufous crown, and ochre-yellow to warm buff below; she also shows pale wing spots. The iris is dark.
Confusion species
The male Uniform Antshrike Thamnophilus unicolor is plain slate-grey without white wing spots or tail tips; the female is rufous-brown with a grey face. The male Barred Antshrike Thamnophilus doliatus is barred black and white all over, the female rufous with a streaked head. Plain-winged Antshrike Thamnophilus schistaceus lives in the Amazonian lowlands and lacks white wing markings.
Habitat
Scrub, forest edges, clearings with undergrowth, secondary forest and roadside thickets on the eastern slope of the Andes, from the foothills into the lower cloud forest; in Bolivia also in dry forest and scrub in the lowlands. It searches dense vegetation for insects and other invertebrates, often close to the ground, and sometimes joins mixed flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Peru on the eastern slope of the Andes, from the north southwards; in Bolivia on the eastern slope and in the dry valleys, and also in the eastern lowlands. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Paraguay, northern Argentina, Uruguay and eastern and southern Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Along mountain roads through the Yungas, in dense roadside shrubs, such as in the valleys of Cusco and La Paz. Often first identified by song; patient waiting usually produces a glimpse.
Conservation status
Least Concern. It tolerates forest disturbance well and also occurs in secondary growth.
Scientific name
Thamnophilus caerulescens | Vieillot, 1816
Vieillot described the species in 1816 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. He introduced the genus Thamnophilus in that same work. The genus name comes from Greek thamnos, 'bush', and philos, 'loving': bush-lover. The species name comes from Latin caerulescens, 'bluish'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Paraguay.