Ash-breasted Antbird Myrmoborus lugubris Scientific name definitions

Among a universally attractive genus, Ash-breasted Antbird arguably is the best-looking of all. Four subspecies, whose ranges and relationships beg additional study, and are most differentiated by their female plumages, are recognized over the species’ remarkably linear range, following the Amazon and some of its major tributaries, between northeasterm Peru and the river’s mouth in the state of Pará, Brazil. Ash-breasted Antbird is restricted to the understory of lowland evergreen forest along rivers, especially on white-water river islands, and in vine-tangled black-water várzea. Like its congeners, it is consistently found in reasonably close-knit pairs, which forage close to the ground and apart from mixed-species flocks. Males are primarily gray above, with a black face and throat, set off by the red eyes, and whitish gray underparts, whereas females are warm buffy-brown above, with pale-spotted wing coverts, sometimes with a prominent dark mask, a white throat, and whitish or grayish underparts.