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White-eyed Attila | Attila bolivianus
Roestattila | Atila ojiblanco | Bate-pára
The White-eyed Attila is a uniformly cinnamon-rufous attila of river forest in south-western Amazonia. Its pale, almost white iris separates it from the other rufous attilas. It perches upright and motionless for long periods in the middle storey and is mostly detected by its loud whistled series.
Voice
A series of loud, clear whistles rising in pitch and volume and ending with a falling note, roughly wheeu-wheeu-wheeu-WHEEU-wheeeoo; slower and fuller than the song of Bright-rumped Attila. It often sings in the early morning from a hidden perch.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
19–21 cm, with a heavy bill hooked at the tip and a fairly long tail. Almost the entire plumage is cinnamon-rufous; the crown and cheeks are slightly darker and browner, the rump and underparts paler cinnamon. The flight feathers are dark brown with rufous edges. The iris is white to pale grey, the bill dark with a paler base to the lower mandible. The sexes are alike; juveniles have a darker iris.
Confusion species
Cinnamon Attila Attila cinnamomeus is very similar, but has a dark iris, blackish flight feathers and a paler, ochre belly; it lives in swamp forest and várzea along the Amazon. Greyish Mourner Rhytipterna simplex is grey and has a slimmer bill. Bright-rumped Attila Attila spadiceus has a streaked breast and a yellow rump. The rufous morph of Citron-bellied Attila Attila citriniventris has a grey head and a yellow belly.
Habitat
Várzea, riverine forest, forest on river levees and gallery forest, in Bolivia also forest islands in wet savanna; mainly in the lowlands below 500 m. It forages in the middle and upper storeys for large insects, frogs and lizards, which it snatches from leaves and branches. Little is known about the nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Peru: in the lowlands east of the Andes, mainly in the centre and south (Ucayali, Madre de Dios), north to along the Amazon. Bolivia: in the lowlands of the north and east (Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz). In Colombia and Ecuador at most very locally in the south-east; firm records are scarce. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western and central Amazonian Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen in the early morning along rivers and oxbow lakes for the loud whistled series, then search the middle storey of the riverside forest; the bird often stays on the same branch for a long time.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a large range; the riverside forest it lives in is cleared locally.
Scientific name
Attila bolivianus | de Lafresnaye, 1848
De Lafresnaye described the species in 1848 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Attila was introduced in 1831 by Lesson. The genus name refers to Attila the Hun, who attacked Rome and Orléans in the 5th century. The species name refers to Bolivia, not necessarily the type locality. The specimen the first description was based on came from Guarayos, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.