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Dot-backed antbird
Male at Apiacás, Mato Grosso state, Brazil
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thamnophilidae
Genus:	Hylophylax
Species:	H. punctulatus
Binomial name
Hylophylax punctulatus (Des Murs, 1856)
Synonyms
Rhopotera punctulata Rhopothera guttata

The dot-backed antbird (Hylophylax punctulatus) is a species of bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

Taxonomy and systematics

The dot-backed antbird is monotypic. It shares genus Hylophylax with the spotted antbird (H. naevioides) and spot-backed antbird (H. naevius). The population in central Brazil south of the Amazon is sometimes treated as subspecies H. p. subochraceous.

Description

The dot-backed antbird is 10 to 11.5 cm (3.9 to 4.5 in) long and weighs 11 to 13 g (0.39 to 0.46 oz). Adult males have a dark rufous-brown crown, nape, and mantle with a white patch between their scapulars. Their back and rump are black with large white feather tips. Their flight feathers are dark brown with wide rufous-brown edges and their wing coverts black with wide white to pale buff tips. Their tail is black with white feather tips. Their face is mostly white; their throat and the lower sides of their neck are black. Their underparts are mostly white with heavy black spots across the breast and along the sides. Their lower belly and undertail coverts have a buffy-olive tinge. "H. p. subochraceous" has more yellow-brown upperparts and a more ochraceous belly, though these colors are at the end of a range rather than completed distinct. Adult females are overall paler than males, with pale buff wing covert tips, a white throat with a black line above it, and a buffy belly.

Distribution and habitat

The dot-backed antbird is found in southern Venezuela, southern and far eastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, northeastern and southeastern Peru, northern and eastern Bolivia, and western and southern Amazonian Brazil. Though some sources also place it in Guyana or French Guiana, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society and the Clements taxonomy do not recognized any records in those countries.

The dot-backed antbird inhabits the understorey of lowland evergreen forest, primarily blackwater várzea forest and also swampy areas, the edges of oxbow lakes, and in transitional forest along small watercourses. In elevation it reaches 300 m (1,000 ft) in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador.

Behavior

Movement

The dot-backed antbird is believed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The dot-backed antbird feeds primarily on a variety insects and probably also spiders. They forage as individuals, pairs, and small family groups and mostly within about 4 m (13 ft) of the ground and seldom with mixed-species feeding flocks. They hop among branches, typically in semi-open parts of the understorey, and take prey with sallies from a perch to the ground and by gleaning and lunging for prey on leaves, twigs, and branches. They occasionally attend army ant swarms as the ants traverse their territory.

Breeding

The dot-backed antbird's breeding season has not been determined though it includes August and January in parts of Brazil. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.

Vocalization

The male dot-backed antbird's song is "a series of doublets each about 0·5 seconds long of 2 somewhat similar sharp whistles, the first emphasizing an upslur and the second a downslur, sounding like “free beer”, delivered at rate of c. 1 every 2 seconds, sometimes for minutes at a time, doublet often given singly". Its note has also been written as "whee-beéyur" and "wee-HEEew". Its calls include "sharp 'psit' notes" in series, "a long downslurred whistle", and "variable chattering notes".

Status

The IUCN has assessed the dot-backed antbird as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range; its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered uncommon to locally fairly common and patchily distributed in most of its range. It occurs in some protected areas. "More surveys are needed in order to clarify the distribution of this poorly known and perhaps under-recorded species."

References

1. ^ BirdLife International (2017). "Dot-backed Antbird Hylophylax punctulatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017: e.T22701922A110864555. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-1.RLTS.T22701922A110864555.en. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
2. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2024). "Antbirds". IOC World Bird List. v 14.1. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
3. ^ 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 4 March 2024. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved 5 March 2024
4. ^ Zimmer, K. and M.L. Isler (2020). Dot-backed Antbird (Hylophylax punctulatus), 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.dobant2.01 retrieved July 24, 2024
5. ^ McMullan, Miles; Donegan, Thomas M.; Quevedo, Alonso (2010). Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Bogotá: Fundación ProAves. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-9827615-0-2.
6. ^ Ridgely, Robert S.; Greenfield, Paul J. (2001). The Birds of Ecuador: Field Guide. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 421–422. ISBN 978-0-8014-8721-7.
7. ^ Schulenberg, T.S., D.F. Stotz, D.F. Lane, J.P. O’Neill, and T.A. Parker III. 2010. Birds of Peru. Revised and updated edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. Plate 175.
8. ^ Hilty, Steven L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela (second ed.). Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. Plate 44.
9. ^ van Perlo, Ber (2009). A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 260–261. ISBN 978-0-19-530155-7.
10. Aleixo, A., Poletto, F., Lima, M.F.C., Castro, M., Portes, E. and Miranda, L.S. (2011). Notes on the vertebrates of northern Pará, Brazil: a forgotten part of the Guianan Region, II. Avifauna. Bol. Mus. Para. Emílio Goeldi. Ciênc. Nat. 6(1): 11–65
11. CHG (2015). Liste des Oiseaux de Guyane - version janvier 2015. URL: http://www.gepog.org/sites/default/files/fichiers/photos_chants/listes/CHG_2015.pdf (download Apr 2015). In French.
12. Clements, J. F., P.C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved October 28, 2023

• IUCN Red List least concern species
• Hylophylax
• Birds of the Amazon rainforest
• Birds described in 1856