Thrush-like antpitta
The thrush-like antpitta is a species of bird in the antpitta family Grallariidae. It is found in every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Taxonomy and systematics
The thrush-like antpitta was described in 1778 by the French polymath Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. Buffon used the French name "Le grand Béfroi". A hand-colored engraving was published separately to accompany Buffon's description. Buffon did not introduce scientific names but 1783 the French naturalist Johann Hermann coined the binomial name Myrmornin campanisonam for Buffon's bird. The specific epithet campanisona combines the Late Latin campana meaning "bell" with the Latin sonus meaning "sounding". The thrush-like antpitta was known under a large number of scientific names before arriving in genus Myrmothera that was introduced in 1816 by Louis Pierre Vieillot.The thrush-like antpitta has these five subspecies:
- M. c. modesta
- M. c. dissors Zimmer, JT, 1934
- M. c. campanisona
- M. c. signata Zimmer, JT, 1934
- M. c. minor
Description
The thrush-like antpitta is about long and weighs between. The sexes have the same plumage and the subspecies differ little from each other. Adults of the nominate subspecies M. c. campanisona have a small white spot behind their eye. Most of the rest of their face is rufous-brown with slightly paler and grayer lores. Their crown, nape, upperparts, and tail are rufous-brown. Their wings are mostly rufous-brown with dark brown inner webs and paler edges on the flight feathers. Their throat and underparts are white. Their breast has grayish brown edges and their sides and flanks are more extensively grayish brown.The other subspecies of the thrush-like antpitta differ from the nominate and each other thus:
- M. c. modesta: more olive-brown upperparts than nominate with a yellowish cast to the breast
- M. c. dissors: more olive-brown upperparts than nominate but less so than modesta
- M. c. minor: duller and more olive-brown upperparts than nominate
- M. c. signata: more olive-brown upperparts than nominate but darker and more rufous than minor
Distribution and habitat
The thrush-like antpitta is found throughout most of the Amazon Basin. The subspecies are found thus :- M. c. modesta: restricted to the Eastern Andes in Colombia's Meta Department
- M. c. dissors: eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela's Amazonas state, and northwestern Brazil
- M. c. campanisona: eastern Venezuela's Bolívar state east through the Guianas and northern Brazil to the Atlantic, all north of the Amazon
- M. c. signata the Eastern Andes of southern Colombia and east of the Andes south through Ecuador into Peru to the Marañón River and Amazon; from them east to the Napo River while north of the Amazon
- M. c. minor: east of the Andes in Peru south of the Maranon and Amazon, south into Bolivia's Pando and La Paz departments, and east into western Brazil to the Purus River and perhaps beyond
The thrush-like antpitta inhabits humid rainforest in the lowlands and foothills, primarily terra firme. It favors areas with a dense understory such as openings caused by tree-fall, regrowing clearings, edges along roads, and especially edges along watercourses. It is found from sea level to in Brazil. In Venezuela it reaches, in Colombia, in Ecuador, and in Peru and locally up to.