The black-faced antthrush (''Formicarius analis''), is a species of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird in the family Formicariidae.

Taxonomy

The black-faced antthrush was formally described in 1837 by the French naturalists Alcide d'Orbigny and Frédéric de Lafresnaye from a specimen collected in Bolivia. They coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Myothera analis''. The specific epithet is from the Modern Latin ''analis'' meaning "relating to the undertail-coverts of the vent". The black-faced antthrush is now placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Formicarius The ''Formicarius'', written 1436–1438 by Johannes Nider during the Council of Florence and first printed in 1475, is the second book ever printed to discuss witchcraft (the first book being Alphonso de Spina's ''Fortalitium Fidei''). Nider de ...

'' that was introduced by the Dutch naturalist

Pieter Boddaert Pieter Boddaert (1730 – 6 May 1795) was a Dutch physician and natural history, naturalist. Early life, family and education Boddaert was the son of a Middelburg jurist and poet by the same name (1694–1760). The younger Pieter obtained his M.D ...

in 1783. Eleven

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised: * ''F. a. umbrosus'' Ridgway, 1893 – east Honduras to west Panama * ''F. a. hoffmanni'' (

Cabanis Cabanis is the surname of: * George Cabanis (1815-1892), American politician *Jean Cabanis (1816–1906), German ornithologist * José Cabanis (1922–2000), French writer, historian and magistrate *Pierre Jean George Cabanis Pierre Jean Georges ...

, 1861) – southwest Costa Rica and southwest Panama * ''F. a. panamensis'' Ridgway, 1908 – east Panama and northwest Colombia * ''F. a. virescens''

Todd Todd or Todds may refer to: Places ;Australia: * Todd River, an ephemeral river ;United States: * Todd Valley, California, also known as Todd, an unincorporated community * Todd, Missouri, a ghost town * Todd, North Carolina, an unincorporated ...

, 1915 –

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...

(northeast Colombia) * ''F. a. saturatus'' Ridgway, 1893 – north Colombia, northwest Venezuela and Trinidad * ''F. a. griseoventris'' Aveledo & Ginés, 1950 – Perijá Mountains (northeast Colombia and northwest Venezuela) * ''F. a. connectens''

Chapman Chapman may refer to: Businesses * Chapman Entertainment, a former British television production company * Chapman Guitars, a guitar company established in 2009 by Rob Chapman * Chapman's, a Canadian ice cream and ice water products manufacturer ...

, 1914 – east Colombia * ''F. a. zamorae'' Chapman, 1923 – east Ecuador, northeast Peru and west Brazil * ''F. a. crissalis'' (Cabanis, 1861) – east Venezuela, the Guianas and northeast Brazil * ''F. a. analis'' (

d'Orbigny Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (6 September 1802 – 30 June 1857) was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology (including malacology), palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anthropol ...

& Lafresnaye, 1837) – east, southeast Peru, north Bolivia and central Brazil * ''F. a. paraensis'' Novaes, 1957 – southeast Amazonian Brazil The subspecies ''hoffmanni'' is sometimes recognised as a distinct species, the Panama antthrush, based primarily of its different song. The

Mayan antthrush The Mayan antthrush (''Formicarius moniliger'') is a species of bird in the family Formicariidae. It is found in southern Mexico through northwestern Honduras. The Mayan antthrush (''Formicarius moniliger'') was formerly considered to be consp ...

(''Formicarius moniliger'') was formerly considered conspecific with the black-faced antthrush.

Description

The black-faced antthrush is similar in general appearance to a rail, with a dumpy body, horizontal carriage, stout bill and short cocked tail. It walks rather than hops, with a jerky motion again reminiscent of a rail. It is typically long, and weighs . The upper parts are rufous brown, and the underparts are paler brown, except for the black face and throat, and rufous under the tail and behind the eye. The sexes are alike in plumage.

Distribution and habitat

It is a common and widespread forest bird in the tropical

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

, from

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

through

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

to the northern regions of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. It occurs in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and the

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

with the exception of the northwest region.

Behaviour

The antthrush builds a leaf-lined nest in a cavity in a hollow branch or stump in which two white eggs are laid. It is an

insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

which feeds on ants and other

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s. It is quite terrestrial, feeding mainly on the ground. It will follow columns of army ants. The call is a loud whistle followed by a series of 2–10 descending whistles, ''WHU! wu-wu-wu-wu-wu-wu-wu-wu-wu''.

References

External links

Black-faced antthrush videos
on the Internet Bird Collection

VIREO {{Taxonbar, from=Q998408

black-faced antthrush The black-faced antthrush (''Formicarius analis''), is a species of passerine bird in the family Formicariidae. Taxonomy The black-faced antthrush was formally described in 1837 by the French naturalists Alcide d'Orbigny and Frédéric de Lafr ...

Birds of Central America Birds of the Amazon rainforest Birds of the Guianas Birds of Colombia Birds of Venezuela Birds of Trinidad and Tobago