Spot-backed antbird
The spot-backed antbird is a species of bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The spot-backed antbird was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the manakins in the genus Pipra and coined the binomial name Pipra naevia. Gmelin based his description on the Fourmillier tacheté, de Cayenne that had been depicted in a hand-colored engraving by François-Nicolas Martinet that was published to accompany Comte de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The specific epithet is from Latin naevius meaning "spotted". The spot-backed antbird is now placed with two other species in the genus Hylophylax that was introduced in 1909 by the American ornithologist Robert Ridgway.The International Ornithological Congress and the Clements taxonomy recognize these five subspecies of the spot-backed antbird:H. n. theresae H. n. peruvianus Carriker, 1932H. n. inexpectatus Carriker, 1932H. n. naevius H. n. ochraceus
BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World adds a sixth, H. n. consobrinus, that the other two systems include in H. n. naevius. Other authors have suggested that as many as three full species might be represented within the spot-backed antbird.
Description
The spot-backed antbird is long and weighs. Adult males of the nominate subspecies H. n. naevius have a dark yellowish brown crown and nape. Their upperparts are mostly dark yellowish brown; the center of their back is black with pale buff spots and they have a white patch between their scapulars. Their flight feathers are dark brown with black bases and their wing coverts black with wide white to pale buff tips. Their tail is dark reddish yellow-brown with white to pale buff tips and a black band above the tips. The face is mostly gray; their throat and the lower sides of their neck are black. Their underparts are mostly white with heavy black spots across the breast and along the sides. Their lower belly and undertail coverts are buff. Adult females are similar to males but have paler upperparts, buffier wing coverts, a white throat with a black band above it, and buff rather than white underparts with the same heavy black spots as males. Juveniles have no interscapular patch, no breast spots, and buffy brown underparts with an olive-brown band across the breast.The other subspecies of the spot-backed antbird differ from the nominate and each other thus:H. n. peruvianus: grayer crown, more chestnut upperparts with more black area and paler spots, and more and bigger breast spots than nominateH. n. theresae: purer gray crown and more black on the back than peruvianus; olive-tinged gray tail with wider pale tip than nominate, more breast spots than nominate, and light olive-buff belly and undertail covertsH. n. inexpectatus: olive-gray crown, olive-brown back, and dark olive-gray tailH. n. ochraceus: grayish crown, small interscapular patch, small to no breast spots; male has ochre-yellow belly and undertail coverts and female has mostly ochre-yellow underparts
Distribution and habitat
The subspecies of the spot-backed antbird are found thus:H. n. theresae: southeastern Ecuador south of the Rio Napo, Loreto Department in northeastern Peru, and western Amazonian Brazil south of the Amazon east to the Rio Tapajós and south to RondôniaH. n. peruvianus: Amazonas and San Martín departments in north-central PeruH. n. inexpectatus: east-central and southeastern Peru, Acre (state) in southwestern Brazil, and northwestern BoliviaH. n. naevius: southeastern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador into northern Peru and east through southern Venezuela, the Guianas, and northern Brazil north of the Amazon to the AtlanticH. n. ochraceus: Amazonian Brazil south of the Amazon between the rios Tapajós and Tocantins and south into northern Mato GrossoThe spot-backed antbird inhabits humid evergreen forest in the lowlands and Andean foothills. It is found in terra firme, várzea, and transitional forest types as well as secondary woodlands. It favors the forest understorey especially near openings caused by fallen trees and along watercourses. In elevation it reaches in Venezuela and Colombia, in Brazil, and in Peru. A few individuals reach in Ecuador but it is mostly found below there.
Behavior
Movement
The spot-backed antbird is believed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.Feeding
The spot-backed antbird feeds primarily on a wide variety insects and spiders. It is a facultative army ant follower, catching about half of its prey as it flees the swarms but seldom following them for a long time. They sometimes loosely associate with mixed-species feeding flocks. They forage as individuals, pairs, and small family groups and mostly within about of the ground. They hop among branches, typically in semi-open parts of the understorey, and take prey with sallies from a perch to the ground and by gleaning and lunging for prey on leaves, twigs, and branches.Breeding
The spot-backed antbird's core breeding season varies geographically but overall the species appears to breed at any time of year. Its nest is a cup made variously of grasses, palm "hairs", fern rootlets, orfungal rhizomes. It is typically suspended from a branch fork near the ground and often partially or fully covered by hanging leaves. The most common clutch size is two eggs though there are many records of nests with one or three. Both parents incubate though it appears that the female alone does so at night, and both parents are assumed to brood and provision nestlings. The incubation period is not known; at one nest fledging occurred 12.5 days after hatch.