Plain-throated Antwren (Isleria hauxwelli)

Identification & Behavior: ~9.5 cm (3.7 in). The male Plain-throated Antwren is all gray with blackish wing coverts, tertials, and tail. It shows white wing bars and white dots on the tertials and smaller dots on the uppertail coverts. The female is olive-brown above with black wing covers with buffy wing bars. The underparts are rufous. It forages in pairs in the understory of the forest in Amazonia, often very close to the ground. It follows mixed-species flocks. The larger Scale-backed Antbird is the only other antbird with a similar pattern of white dots and bars on the back. The female superficially resembles a female White-flanked Antwren.

Status: The Plain-throated Antwren is uncommon and widespread in Amazonia where it is known to range up to 700 m along the foothill of the Andes. It also occurs in Co, Ec, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Hormiguerito de Garganta Llana.

Sub-species: Plain-throated Antwren (Isleria hauxwelli suffusa), (J. T. Zimmer), 1932.  SE Colombia (from Meta S along the base of the Andes, E to E Vaupés), extreme NW Amazonian Brazil (W of R Japurá), E Ecuador and NE Peru (Loreto and Amazonas N of R Marañón).
(Isleria hauxwelli hauxwelli), (P. L. Sclater), 1857.  E Peru (S of R Amazon and R Marañón), SW & SC Amazonian Brazil (E to R Xingu in Pará, S to Acre and SW & N Mato Grosso) and NW & NE Bolivia (Pando, Beni, La Paz, NE Santa Cruz).

Meaning of Name: Isleria: In honor of Morton L. Isler (b. 1929) and Phyllis R. Isler (b. 1931) US ornithologists. hauxwelli: In honor of John Hauxwell (fl. 1868) English collector in Peru and Brazil.

See more of the Family Thamnophilidae