Bird of the day
Hairy-crested antbird
Rhegmatorhina melanosticta
The hairy-crested antbird (Rhegmatorhina melanosticta) is a species of bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The hairy-crested antbird is 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long and weighs 29 to 33 g (1.0 to 1.2 oz). Both sexes have a large pale bluish white ring of bare skin around the eye, and adults have a bushy crest. Adult males of the nominate subspecies R. m. melanosticta have an olive-tinged gray crest. Their nape, the sides of their neck, and their upperparts, wings, and tail are olive-brown. The wing feathers have rufous edges and the tail is blackish towards its tip. Their lores, face, and throat are black and the rest of their underparts dark olive-brown. Adult females are like males with the addition of short black bars with cinnamon-rufous edges on their upper back feathers and wing coverts. Subadult males do not have a crest; their crown is blackish, their upperparts like adult females', and their underparts have some blackish feathers. Subspecies R. m. brunneiceps is more rufescent than the nominate, with a black-streaked rufous to light brown crown and darker underparts. R. m. purusiana and R. m. badia are somewhat variable but paler than the nominate, and females have smaller black bars on their back.
Aliases
Rhegmatorhina melanosticta