Scaled Antpitta (Grallaria guatimalensis)

Identification & Behavior: ~16 cm (6.3 in). The Scaled Antpitta is dark rufous and brown with gray cap and nape. The back is dark brown with feathers fringed with dusky giving it a scaled effect. The throat is dusky, the breast is dark brown with a whitish mustachial streak. Birds show a pale crescent of variable size at the lower throat. As with other Antpittas, it forages on the forest floor. The color structure is similar to that of Variegated Antpitta, which occurs on the eastern Amazonia, North of the Amazon River. Their ranges are not known to overlap.

Status: The Scaled Antpitta occurs on the humid east slope of the Andes along an altitudinal band of 650 m to 1750 m. This Antpitta also occurs on the west humid slope of the Andes and the deciduous forest of Tumbes, in extreme northwest Peru. A poorly known population occurs in Amazonia in extreme northeast Peru. It also occurs in Co, Ec, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Tororoi Escamoso.

Sub-species: Scaled Antpitta (Grallaria guatimalensis regulus) P. L. Sclater, 1860. East of the Andes S to Central Peru. West of the Andes S to Cajamarca. Also (G. g. sororia), Berlepsch and Stolzmann, 1901. Southern Peru, from Cusco to C Bolivia.

Meaning of Name: Grallaria: L. grallarius, grallae= one walking on stilts. guatimalensis: originating from the country of Guatemala.

See more of the Family Grallariidae