The rufous-backed stipplethroat (''Epinecrophylla haematonota''), also called the rufous-backed antwren or the stipple-throated antwren, 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

Thamnophilidae The antbirds are a large passerine bird family, Thamnophilidae, found across subtropical and tropical Central and South America, from Mexico to Argentina. There are more than 230 species, known variously as antshrikes, antwrens, antvireos, fire ...

. It is found in southeastern Colombia and southern Venezuela to eastern Ecuador, northern and eastern Peru and western Brazil in its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

of subtropical or tropical moist lowland

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

Taxonomy

The rufous-backed stipplethroat was described by the English zoologist

Philip Sclater Philip Lutley Sclater (4 November 1829 – 27 June 1913) was an England, English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world. He was Secretary of the Zoological ...

in 1857 and given 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 ...

''Formicivora haematonota''. It was formerly placed in the genus ''

Myrmotherula ''Myrmotherula'' is a genus of insectivorous passerine birds in the antbird, antbird family, Thamnophilidae. These are all small antbirds, measuring . The genus was erected by the English zoologist Philip Sclater in 1858. The type species is the ...

''. In 2014, the species name was changed from the nominate subspecies of the rufous-backed stipplethroat when two other former subspecies were reclassified as the Negro stipple-throated antwren and

Yasuni antwren The rufous-backed stipplethroat (''Epinecrophylla haematonota''), also called the rufous-backed antwren or the stipple-throated antwren, is a species of bird in the family Thamnophilidae. It is found in southeastern Colombia and southern Venezuel ...

, but vocalizations were found to be identical and morphological differences slight (Isler and Whitney 2018), so they were returned to subspecies status.

Description

The rufous-backed stipplethroat is about long. The male has mainly brown upper parts with a reddish-brown back and rump, and black wing coverts with white speckling and two white bars. The male's throat is black spotted with white, and the sides of the head, the breast and belly are grey. The female is similar to the male but the wing coverts are tipped with buff and the sides of the face and the throat are ochre, the throat sometimes being tinged with red. In both sexes, the colour of the iris is variable and can be orange, dark or whitish, and the tail is brown which distinguishes this species from the rufous-tailed stipplethroat (''Epinecrophylla erythrura''). The song is a trill of short, staccato notes, first rising in pitch and then descending.

Ecology

The species is often seen in small mixed flocks of passerine birds moving through the forest and foraging in the lower parts of the canopy. The diet consists mainly of insects and spiders, particularly

crickets Crickets are orthopteran insects which are related to bush crickets, and, more distantly, to grasshoppers. In older literature, such as Imms,Imms AD, rev. Richards OW & Davies RG (1970) ''A General Textbook of Entomology'' 9th Ed. Methuen 8 ...

, and is found on shoots and leaves, with the bird often probing into curled, dead foliage.

Conservation status

''Epinecrophylla haematonota'' is a fairly common bird with a wide range. No particular threats are known, and in the absence of contrary information, the population is presumed to be stable and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature 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 rated the conservation status of this bird as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

General references

* Isler, M., D. Lacerda, P. Isler, S. Hackett, K. Rosenberg, and R. Brumfield (2006). ''Epinecrophylla, a new genus of antwrens (Aves: Passeriformes: Thamnophilidae).'' Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 119(4): 522-527 {{Taxonbar, from=Q1263152 rufous-backed stipplethroat Birds of the Amazon Basin Birds of the Colombian Amazon Birds of the Peruvian Amazon Birds of the Venezuelan Amazon rufous-backed stipplethroat rufous-backed stipplethroat Taxonomy articles created by Polbot