Dot-winged Antwren

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Dot-winged Antwren
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thamnophilidae
Genus: Microrhopias
Sclater, 1862
Species: M. quixensis
Binomial name
Microrhopias quixensis
(Cornalia, 1849))

The Dot-winged Antwren or Velvety Antwren, Microrhopias quixensis, is a passerine bird in the antbird family. It is a resident breeder in tropical Central and South America from southeastern Mexico south to western Ecuador, northern Bolivia and central Brazil. It is the only member of the genus Microrhopias.

This is a common bird of the understory of wet forest, especially at edges and clearings, tall second growth, and in cacao plantations. The female lays two brown-spotted white eggs which are incubated by both sexes, in a small, deep, plant fibre and dead leaf cup nest 1-12 m high in a tree on a thin twig in thick foliage. The male and female parents both feed the chicks.

The Dot-winged Antwren is a warbler-like bird, typically 11 cm long, and weighing 8.5 g. The adult male is mainly velvety black, with a broad white wing bar and white spots on the wing coverts. The female shares the male’s wing pattern, but has slate upperparts and rufous underparts. Young birds are sooty-brown above, shading to dull cinnamon below. The underpart colouration is more extensive and more rufous in young females.

This species has a whistled peep call, and the song is an ascending whistle and trill, chee chee chee-che-che-chr,r,r,r.

The Dot-winged Antwren is found as pairs or family groups, and sometimes with other antwrens as part of a mixed-species feeding flock It feeds on small insects and other arthropods taken from twigs and foliage in the thickets or vine tangles. It is often seen foraging in more exposed positions than its relatives.

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