Dot-winged Antwren (Microrhopias quixensis)

Dot-winged Antwren (Microrhopias quixensis)

[order] PASSERIFORMES | [family] Thamnophilidae | [latin] Microrhopias quixensis | [UK] Dot-winged Antwren | [FR] Fourmilier nain a ailes macule | [DE] Tropfenflugel-Ameisenfanger | [ES] Hormiguerito del Quijos | [NL] Spikkelvleugelmiersluiper

The adult male is mainly velvety black, with a broad white wing bar and white spots on the wing coverts. The female shares the male’s wing pattern, but has slate upperparts and rufous underparts. Young birds are sooty-brown above, shading to dull cinnamon below. The underpart colouration is more extensive and more rufous in young females.

Latin America : South Mexico to South Amazonia

This is a common bird of the understory of wet forest, especially at edges and clearings, tall second growth, and in cacao plantations.

Dot-winged Antwrens maintain long-term pair bonds on year-long territories in tropical forests and woodland of Central and South America. The nestling period lasts approximately 9 days. The nest is a small and deep. it is made out of plant fibre and dead leaf usually hanging from a branch 1-12 meter up in a tree from a thin twig in thick foliage. The building occurred when the mixed-species flock with which the antwrens were traveling moved close to the nest site; both pair members rapidly gathered and added material to the nest. The female lays two eggs which are incubated by both sexes. Both sexes brood the young during the first few days of the nestling period. Birds might compete for fecal sacs and visiting the nest first after a long absence might guarantee access to the fecal sacs (fecal sacs were often eaten by adult Dot-winged Antwrens).

The Dot-winged Antwren is found as pairs or family groups, and sometimes with other antwrens as part of a mixed-species feeding flock It feeds on small insects and other arthropods taken from twigs and foliage in the thickets or vine tangles. It is often seen foraging in more exposed positions than its relatives.

This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be stable, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Sedentary throughout range.