White-fringed Antwren
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| iWhite-fringed Antwren | ||||||||||||||
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| Formicivora grisea (Boddaert, 1783) |
The White-fringed Antwren, Formicivora grisea, is a passerine bird in the antbird family. It is a resident breeder in tropical South America from Colombia southeast to the Guianas and Brazil, and on Tobago.
This is a common and confiding bird of second growth woodland, usually found as territorial pairs. The female lays two purple-marked creamy white eggs, which are incubated by both sexes, in a grass hammock nest low in a tree or shrub.
The White-fringed Antwren is typically 12.7 cm long, and weighs 9.4 g. The male has a grey-brown crown and upperparts, and black wings, tail, lower face and underparts. There are two conspicuous white wing bars and a white stripe running from above the eye down the sides of the breast and flanks. The tail feathers are tipped with white. The female’s upperparts are much like the male, but her underparts are buff with dark streaks. The Tobagonian race F. g. tobagensis is larger than mainland birds.
The White-fringed Antwren feeds on small insects and other arthropods taken from undergrowth twigs and foliage. It has a tu whistle followed by a trilled churet, and a repeated and accelerating tu-ik call.
Females of the southern race of White-fringed Antwren are orange below and have an orange supercilum. This form also has a repetitive chump-chump-chump song, quite unlike northern races, and is sometimes separated as Southern White-fringed Antwren F. grisea, with the northern subspecies becoming Northern White-fringed Antwren F. intermedia. The southern form is associated with scrubby bushes on white sandy soils, and occurs south and east from southeastern Colombia and southernmost Venezuela.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Formicivora grisea. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Birds of Venezuela by Hilty, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
- Birds of Trinidad and Tobago by ffrench, ISBN 0-7136-6759-1
