The Guianan gnatcatcher (''Polioptila guianensis'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family Polioptilidae. It is found in

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 ...

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

, and

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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Guianan gnatcatcher is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

. Two former

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 ...

, Rio Negro gnatcatcher (''Polioptila facilis'') and Para gnatcatcher (''P. paraensis'', also called Klages's gnatcatcher) have been treated as separate species since mid-2019. The

Inambari gnatcatcher The Inambari gnatcatcher (''Polioptila attenboroughi'') is a species of bird in the family Polioptilidae. It is endemic to Brazil. Taxonomy and systematics The Inambari gnatcatcher was described as a new species in 2013.Whittaker, A., Aleixo ...

(''P. attenboroughi'') and

Iquitos gnatcatcher The Iquitos gnatcatcher (''Polioptila clementsi'') is a bird in the family Polioptilidae. It was first described in 2005. It is known only from the Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve, west of Iquitos, Peru. Taxonomy and systematics The ...

(''P. clementsi''), which were accepted as new species at about that time, are very closely related to it.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 23 May 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved May 24, 2021Atwood, J. L., S. B. Lerman, G. M. Kirwan, and H. F. Greeney (2020). Guianan Gnatcatcher (''Polioptila guianensis''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.guigna3.01 retrieved May 29, 2021

Description

The Guianan gnatcatcher is long and weighs . The male's head, back, and breast are bluish gray. It has a broken white eye ring. The innermost feathers of its tail are black and the two outermost white. Its throat and belly are white. The female is similar but a paler gray and has a white

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also ...

Distribution and habitat

The Guianan gnatcatcher is found in

the Guianas The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * ...

and adjoining Brazil south to the

Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...

.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 15, 2019 Its range might also extend westward into eastern Venezuela. It inhabits the borders and canopy of humid

primary forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

forest, and dryland forest.

Behavior

Feeding

The Guianan gnatcatcher's diet has not been documented but is assumed to be

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

s like that of other ''Polioptila'' gnatcatchers. It actively forages as part of mixed-species flocks.

Breeding

The Guianan gnatcatcher's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples includ ...

is essentially unknown, but "A male was observed feeding a fledgling on 27 November 1984 in French Guiana".

Vocalization

The Guianan gnatcatcher's song is "fairly simple...repeated high notes

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has not assessed the Guianan gnatcatcher separately from the larger species complex that predated the 2019 splits. That complex was assessed as of Least Concern. "The species’ ecoregion of primary occurrence, Guianan moist forest, not considered to be at serious risk, given its current and projected conservation status."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q841856 Guianan gnatcatcher Birds of the Amazon Basin Birds of the Guianas Birds of the Venezuelan Amazon Guianan gnatcatcher Guianan gnatcatcher Taxonomy articles created by Polbot