Salvadori's antwren (''Myrmotherula minor'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in subfamily Thamnophilinae of 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 ...

, the "typical antbirds". It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Brazil.

Taxonomy and systematics

Salvadori's antwren 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 "unisp ...

. It, the Rio Suno antwren (''M. sunensis''), and the slaty antwren (''M. schisticolor'') have similar

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

, behavior, and voices and may form a

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

group.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, G. Del-Rio, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 26 November 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved November 27, 2023Zimmer, K. and M.L. Isler (2020). Salvadori's Antwren (''Myrmotherula minor''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.salant1.01 retrieved February 12, 2024 The species' English name honors Italian zoologist and ornithologist

Tommaso Salvadori Count Adelardo Tommaso Salvadori Paleotti (30 September 1835 – 9 October 1923) was an Italian zoologist and ornithologist. Biography Salvadori was born in Porto San Giorgio, son of Count Luigi Salvadori and Ethelyn Welby, who was English. His ...

, who first described it.

Description

Salvadori's antwren is about long. It is a smallish bird with a short tail. Adult males are mostly gray that is lighter on the underparts. Their tail is gray with a black band near the end and white tips on the feathers. Their wings are gray with white-tipped blackish

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

. Their throat and the center of the upper breast are black; their crissum has blackish bars. Adult females have a gray head and olive-brown upperparts. Their tail and wings are dull rufous-brown; the tail feathers have russet edges and the wing coverts thin buff edges. Their throat is dingy white and the rest of their underparts deep buff that is deepest on the flanks and crissum. Subadult males lack the adult's black band on the tail.

Distribution and habitat

Salvadori's antwren is a bird of the Atlantic Forest. It found very spottily and locally in coastal eastern Brazil between

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

and extreme northeastern Santa Catarina. It inhabits the understorey to mid-storey of

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zo ...

and adjacent mature

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

in the lowlands and foothills. It favors the forest interior and usually occurs near running water. In elevation it mostly occurs below but is found as high as .

Behavior

Movement

Salvadori's antwren is believed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The diet of Salvadori's antwren's diet is not known in detail but is probably mostly mostly insects and spiders. It forages singly, in pairs, or in family groups, and usually as part of a

mixed-species feeding flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These ar ...

. It typically forages around the crown and perimeter of trees with medium-size to large leaves. It feeds mostly between about above the ground but will go as low as and as high as . It seeks prey mostly by gleaning live leaves, and also takes prey from clusters of dead leaves, moss, and hanging ''

Usnea ''Usnea'' is a genus of fruticose lichens in the large family Parmeliaceae. The genus, which currently contains roughly 130 species, was established by Michel Adanson in 1763. Species in the genus grow like leafless mini-shrubs or tassels anch ...

'' lichen.

Breeding

The breeding season of Salvadori's antwren includes October but is otherwise undefined. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.

Vocalization

The song of Salvadori's antwren is "short twittering, starting extr. high, completed by liquid 'tyweet-tweet-tueet' ". Its calls include "variable...short whistles, given singly", "sharp chips, often in short series", and the same chips in a longer, more widely spaced, series.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

originally in 1988 assessed Salvadori's antwren as Threatened and since 1994 as Vulnerable. It has a small and fragmented range and its estimated population of 2500 to 10,000 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. The primary threat is

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. "Virtually all lowland Atlantic forest outside protected areas has been deforested within its historical range, and even some of the protected areas in which it occurs are not secure." It is considered uncommon to rare and local. It does occur in some protected areas, but "most do not contain sufficient forest habitat in the relevant elevational range (below 300 m)".

References

External links

*
BirdLife Species Factsheet.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1269813 Myrmotherula Birds of the Atlantic Forest Endemic birds of Brazil Birds described in 1864 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot