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Speckled Antshrike | Xenornis setifrons
Vlekborstmierklauwier | Batará moteado
The Speckled Antshrike is a little-known, scarce antshrike of hill forest in eastern Panama and adjacent north-western Colombia. It is the only member of the genus Xenornis. It lives in the understorey and middle levels of humid forest and is mostly found with mixed-species flocks. In the guide area it occurs only in eastern Panama.
Voice
A series of thin, high, whistled notes.
Recording: Iván Lau — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
16 cm, with a fairly heavy bill hooked at the tip and a fairly long tail. Male dark greyish-brown above with fine buff spots, two buff wingbars, plain slate-grey below. Female brown above with buff spots and wingbars as in the male, olive-brown below with fine pale streaks.
Confusion species
Black-crowned Antshrike Thamnophilus atrinucha is more often seen in the lowlands and at forest edges; the male has a black crown and grey underparts without buff spots on the back, the female is plainer rufous-brown. Spot-crowned Antvireo Dysithamnus puncticeps is much smaller, with a spotted crown.
Habitat
Understorey and middle levels of humid evergreen hill and foothill forest, mainly in the hills of the Caribbean slope and in Darién. It searches quietly for insects, often in mixed flocks with other antbirds and tanagers.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area only in eastern Panama: the hills of eastern Panamá province, Guna Yala and Darién. Outside the guide area in adjacent north-western Colombia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
One of the hardest birds to find in Panama. The best-known site is the forest along the El Llano–Cartí road (Nusagandi) in Guna Yala.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. Small range in hill forest that is being cleared in many places; scarce and local even within that range.
Scientific name
Xenornis setifrons | Chapman, 1924
Chapman described the species in 1924 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. He introduced the genus Xenornis in that same work. Xenornis is Greek, from xenos 'stranger' and ornis 'bird': 'stranger bird', probably because its relationships long puzzled ornithologists. setifrons is Latin, from seta 'bristle' and frons 'forehead', probably after the stiff frontal feathers. The specimen the first description was based on came from Tacarcuna, eastern Panama.