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White-masked Antbird | Pithys castaneus
Witmaskermiervogel | Hormiguero castaño | Papa-formiga-de-máscara-branca
The White-masked Antbird is a rufous ant follower with a black head and a white face, known only from a small area of northern Peru. It was described in 1937 from a single specimen and was not found again until 2001. It lives in low forest on white-sand soils and depends entirely on army ant swarms.
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Voice
The song is a rising, whining whistle with short, quiet, chiming notes between the whistles. Calls include a soft, descending mewed whistle, a harsh descending t'char, a sharp tchip and a low, harsh grrah.
Recording: Fabrice Schmitt — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14 cm. Mainly bright rufous to chestnut. Crown, nape, lower ear coverts and the sides of the throat are black; the lores, the skin around the eye, chin and throat are white, forming a white mask framed in black. Bill slaty with silvery-white edges, legs ochre-orange. The sexes are alike. Young birds are duller, with less white on the face and a sooty-brown rather than black head.
Confusion species
White-plumed Antbird Pithys albifrons follows the same ant swarms, but has grey upperparts, a black face with long white plumes on the forehead and chin, and is smaller. Other rufous antbirds in the area lack the black-framed white mask.
Habitat
Understorey of varillal, low to medium-height forest on white sand with a thick layer of humus and leaf litter, with trees up to about 30 m tall; all known sites are below 300 m. An obligate ant follower that catches arthropods mainly near the front of a swarm from a low perch; up to four birds at one swarm. Little is known about its breeding; juveniles have been seen in July.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Peru: only in a small area in the north, from north-eastern Amazonas to western Loreto, in the Pastaza and Morona drainages. Not known from Ecuador, although its habitat lies close to the border. Absent from Colombia, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The species is known only from a few remote sites in the lowlands of northern Peru, reached by boat expedition. Search white-sand forest there for army ant swarms and listen for the whining whistle.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. The population is estimated at 1500–7000 mature individuals and is probably declining. Threats are habitat damage from the construction of an oil pipeline and planned roads; ant followers are among the first species to disappear from fragmented forest.
Scientific name
Pithys castaneus | Berlioz, 1938
Berlioz described the species in 1938 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Pithys was introduced in 1818 by Vieillot. The origin of the genus name is uncertain: it may be based on a Guaraní name used by Félix de Azara, or be a corrupt combination of the genus Pipra, 'manakin', and Modern Latin thlypis, 'warbler'. The species name comes from Latin castaneus, 'chestnut-coloured'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Andoas, Río Pastaza, Ecuador.