Black-crested antshrike

The black-crested antshrike (Sakesphorus canadensis) is a passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in tropical South America in Trinidad, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, and Peru.

The black-crested antshrike is 14 to 18 cm (5.5 to 7.1 in) long and weighs 20 to 28 g (0.71 to 0.99 oz). This species exhibits sexual dimorphism, but both sexes have a shaggy crest. Adult males of the nominate subspecies S. c. canadensis have a black head, throat, and center of their breast. They have a white band on their nape. Their upperparts are cinnamon-brown. Their wings and tail are black with white edges to the feathers and white spots at the tips of the outer tail feathers. The sides of their breast and their belly are whitish gray and their flanks and crissum a darker gray. Adult females have a rufous crown, a grayish face, and cinnamon nape and sides of their neck. Their upperparts are cinnamon-brown like the male's. Their wings and tail are brownish black with white edges on the flight feathers and white edges and tips on the tail feathers. Their throat is whitish, their breast cinnamon with blackish streaks, and their belly and crissum buff-tinged whitish. Subadult males resemble adult females.

The other subspecies of the black-crested antshrike differ from the nominate and each other thus:

S. c. pulchellus: male compared to nominate has white streaks on the black crown and throat, a speckled black and white face, lighter pale cinnamon upperparts, and more white on the tail and underparts; female is a paler version of the nominate

S. c. intermedius: very similar to nominate

S. c. fumosus: generally darker than nominate; males have almost black upperparts, very little white on the nape, slate-gray underparts, and little white on the tail; females dark with heavy streaks on the breast

S. c. trinitatis: very similar to nominate

S. c. loretoyacuensis: much like fumosus except male's nape and underparts are almost like the nominate's