Alagoasa ant panties
| Alagoasa ant panties | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Myrmotherula snowi | ||||||||||||
| ( Teixeira & Gonzaga , 1985) |
The Alagoas ant hatchers ( Myrmotherula snowi ), formerly known as the northern monochrome ant hatchers , are a rare species of bird in the ant bird family . It is endemic to the states of Alagoas and Pernambuco in Brazil . The specific epithet honors the British ornithologist David Snow . Until 1992 it was considered a subspecies of the Paraná ant hatchers ( Myrmotherula unicolor ). However, since the taxa occur in different geographical areas, the Alagoas ant hatchers have been regarded as a separate species since 1992.
description
The Alagoas ant panties reach a length of 9.5 centimeters. The male is completely gray. The throat is light gray with an inconspicuous little black spot. The female is reddish-brown with a rust-red tail. The throat is whitish, the underside reddish-tan. The Alagoas ant hatchers have a shorter tail and longer beak than those of its relative. The female of the Alagoas ant hatchers is also more reddish-brown on the underside than the female of the Paraná ant hatchers.
Vocalizations
The singing consists of a series of three to six downward sloping clear flute tones. His alarm call consists of a nyiih-nyeeh-nyaah and his contact call is a kleek .
Way of life and habitat
The Alagoas ant hatchers live in pairs or small mixed swarms (often together with the white flanked ant hatchers ( Myrmotherula axillaris )) in the middle tree layers of the lowland rainforests on the Atlantic at altitudes of 400-550 m. When searching for food, it moves between 1.5 and 9 m above the ground. It feeds mainly on arachnids, beetles, ants and cockroaches. Brooding females have been observed in February and young birds in May.
status
In 1979, two males and two females were collected for the first time at Murici in the Brazilian state of Alagoas. Another juvenile male was added in 1984. During the 1990s and 2000, the researchers observed only a very small number of individuals. In recent years specimens have also been discovered at Mata do Estado and Frei Caneca in the state of Pernambuco. In the 1970s, the forest near Murici still had an area of 70 km². By 1999 the area had shrunk to 30 km². Today the forest is very fragmented and has had to give way to sugar cane plantations and pastureland. There are also bush fires that threaten the few forest fragments. To protect the Alagoas ant hatchers, a private nature reserve with a forest area of 6 km² was established near Frei Caneca. BirdLife International estimates the total population of the species to be between 50 and 250 specimens.
literature
- Robert S. Ridgely , Guy Tudor : The Birds of South America. Volume 2: The Suboscine Passerines. University of Texas Press, 1994, ISBN 0-292-77063-4 .
- Erik Hirschfeld: The Rare Birds Yearbook 2008. MagDig Media Ltd., Shrewsbury 2007, ISBN 978-0-9552607-3-5 .
Web links
- BirdLife International: Species Factsheet - Myrmotherula snowi
- New pact to protect Murici
- Photos and information about the species
- Myrmotherula snowi inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018.2. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2016. Retrieved February 3, 2019.