Tachira ant pitta
| Tachira ant pitta | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Grallaria chthonia | ||||||||||||
| Phelps Jr. & Wetmore , 1956 |
The Táchira ant pitta ( Grallaria chthonia ) is a scarcely researched bird species from the family of the ant pittas (Grallariidae). It was considered lost between 1956 and 2016.
description
The Táchira ant pitta reaches a length of 17 cm. The top is brown, the hood and neck are colored gray. The coat is banded in black. The throat and the ear covers are brown. It is also characterized by a white stripe on the cheeks. The lower body is whitish, the flanks and chest are banded gray.
Way of life
His way of life has not been explored.
status
For a long time only four specimens of the Táchira ant pitta were known. In February 1955, Ramon Urbano discovered a male in the Terra typica near Hacienda la Providencia on the Rio Chiquita in the southwestern part of the Venezuelan state of Táchira , which is classified as a holotype. Three more copies were collected in 1955 and 1956. During intensive searches between 1990 and 1996, the species could not be observed. The region lies in the El Tamá National Park and useful habitat is still available. However, the river valley of the Rio Chiquita was changed in 1996 by coffee plantations below the altitude of 1600 meters. In June 2016, a team of Venezuelan-US ornithologists, with financial support from the American Bird Conservancy, succeeded in rediscovering the Táchira ant pitta and photographed a specimen.
literature
- Alexander Wetmore, William Henry Phelps, Jr .: Further Additions to the List of Birds of Venezuela . In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . tape 69 , 1956, pp. 1-10 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
- Harold F. Greeney : Antpittas & Gnateaters , Helm Identification Guides, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018
Web links
- BirdLife International: Species Factsheet - Grallaria chthonia
- Grallaria chthonia inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018.2. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2018. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Neotropical Birds: Tachira Antpitta Grallaria chthonia