Plain antvireo

The plain antvireo (Dysithamnus mentalis) is a passerine bird species in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Mexico, every Central American country except El Salvador, on both Trinidad and Tobago, and in every mainland South American country except Chile, French Guiana, Suriname, and Uruguay.

The plain antvireo is 10 to 13 cm (3.9 to 5.1 in) long and weighs 12 to 16 g (0.42 to 0.56 oz). It is a rather chunky bird with a large head and short tail. Adult males of the nominate subspecies D. m. mentalis have a dark gray forehead and crown and blackish ear coverts. Their upperparts are grayish olive with a hidden white patch between the scapulars. Their wings are dark grayish olive with olive edges on the flight feathers, white tips on the grayish olive greater coverts, blackish median coverts with white tips, and blackish lesser coverts. Their tail is dark grayish olive with narrow white tips on the feathers. Their throat and upper breast are white with light gray spots and their sides olive gray. Their lower breast, flanks, and crissum are pale gray and the center of their belly yellow. Adult females have a cinnamon-tawny crown. Their upperparts and wings are more olive and less gray than the male's and they lack the white interscapular patch. Their wing coverts and the edges of their flight feathers are olive-yellow. Their underparts have more extensive yellow than do males'.

The other subspecies of the plain antvireo differ from the nominate and each other thus:

D. m. viridis: like the nominate

D. m. cumbreanus: like the nominate

D. m. emiliae: like the nominate

D. m. septentrionalis: male grayer than nominate with yellowish belly; female overall browner

D. m. suffusus: male slightly paler than septentrionalis

D. m. affinis: male somewhat paler than suffusus, with a white belly center; female has warm brown upperparts

D. m. andrei: male slightly darker than affinis; female duller brown than affinis

D. m. oberi: male like andrei; female with yellower underparts

D. m. extremus: male has blackish crown, otherwise like the nominate

D. m. semicinereus: male has almost pure gray upperparts with a hint of olive, a grayer tail than nominate, and gray throat and underparts with white belly center and faint yellow tinge on lower belly and flanks; female has a more tawny crown and even less gray tone on the upperparts than nominate, clay colored edges to flight and tail feathers, olive-brown tinge to throat, light olive-brown breastband, white upper belly becoming yellowish olive on lower belly, and olive sides and flanks

D. m. spodionotus: male darker than semicinereus; female warm ochraceous with white throat and belly

D. m. ptaritepui: similar to spodionotus but male not as dark

D. m. tavarae: similar to spodionotus but male not as dark

D. m. olivaceus: male slightly more olive than ptaritepui and tavarae

D. m. napensis: male paler than olivaceous with less yellow than nominate; female underparts drab buffy-olive with no yellow

D. m. tambillanus: like napensis

D. m. aequatorialis: male's underparts much paler than those of napensis and tambillanus with pale yellow belly and gray tinge on the flanks

There is some question about the validity of all the subspecies, with some possibly representing clinal variation rather than subspeciation. "[M]olecular studies [are] needed in order to establish relationships among populations."