Tachira Antpitta Grallaria chthonia Scientific name definitions

This incredibly poorly known species long was known solely from four specimens, all of which were taken at the same locality in southern Táchira, in westernmost Venezuela, in the mid-1950s. Occasional searches failed to relocate it, and in the meantime deforestation has been rampant in this region. Consequently the conservation status of Tachira Antpitta is assessed as Critically Endangered by BirdLife International. A renewed effort in June 2016 was more successful, however, and a population was rediscovered at the same site where it first had been discovered. The species is considered to be most closely related to Scaled Antpitta (Grallaria guatimalensis) or to Moustached Antpitta (Grallaria alleni), but is separated from both of these by virtue of having a rather paler belly, with distinctly scaled flanks. Detecting any of these differences in the field, however, probably would be very difficult. Tachira Antpitta is postulated to be altitudinal replacement of Scaled Antpitta, which occurs at lower altitudes in this region of Venezuela.;