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Thicket Antpitta | Myrmothera dives
Oranjeflankmierpitta | Tororoí ventricanela colombiano
The Thicket Antpitta is a round, short-tailed antpitta of dense thickets and young secondary forest in the lowlands. It lives hidden on the ground and is best known for its loud, swelling song. In the guide area it occurs from Honduras to Panama.
Voice
A series of six to ten hollow whistles that increase in pitch and volume and stop abruptly. It sings mainly in the early morning and can then be heard from far away.
Recording: Nick Talbot — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
14–15 cm, with a very short tail and long legs. Crown and face slate-grey, back and wings olive-brown without spots. Throat and centre of the belly whitish; breast and flanks warm ochre-orange, the breast sometimes faintly streaked darker. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
Streak-chested Antpitta Hylopezus perspicillatus has a broad pale eye-ring, pale spots on the wing-coverts and a clearly black-streaked breast, and prefers tall forest. Antthrushes of the genus Formicarius have a longer, cocked tail and no orange flanks.
Habitat
Dense thickets in young secondary forest, treefall gaps, forest edges with Heliconia and other scrub, in the lowlands and foothills to about 1000 m. It searches the ground for insects and other invertebrates.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Caribbean slope of Honduras and Nicaragua, Costa Rica and western Panama, and locally elsewhere in Panama. Outside the guide area in north-western Colombia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Virtually invisible in the thickets. On hearing the song, waiting quietly at the edge of a clearing or trail sometimes gives a brief view of the bird on the ground or on a low branch.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Locally fairly common in suitable scrub; benefits in part from young secondary forest.
Scientific name
Myrmothera dives | (Salvin, 1865) (GBIF: Hylopezus dives)
Salvin described the species in 1865 as Grallaria dives; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Myrmothera was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. Myrmothera is Greek, from murmēx 'ant' and thēras 'hunter': 'ant-hunter'. dives is Latin for 'rich', probably after the rich, warm colours of the plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Tucurrique, Costa Rica.