Rufous Gnateater Conopophaga lineata Scientific name definitions

Gnateaters are small, plump looking birds with a very short tail and relatively long tarsi. Another distinctive feature is a prominent white postocular stripe, which may be largely concealed, or flared laterally, especially when a gnateater is agitated. Rufous Gnateater otherwise has relatively plain plumage, with dull brown upperparts, tawny throat, breast, and flanks, and a white belly. Rufous Gnateater occupies the understory of humid and gallery forest in southeastern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina; it also ranges into drier forests in south central Brazil. This gnateater forages for insects on or near the ground. The nest of Rufous Gnateater is a cup placed within 2 m of the ground, and the clutch is two eggs.

11·5–14 cm; 16–27 g (mean of 11 birds 22·1 g) (1 Reinert, B. L., J. C. Pinto, M. R. Bornschein, M. Pichorim, and M. Â. Marini (1996). Body masses and measurements of birds from southern Atlantic forest, Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 13(4):815–820. Close ). Male has rufous-chestnut crown, grey supercilium extending into silvery white postocular tuft, upperparts usually only slightly browner than crown (but crown noticeably more rufous-chestnut than back on specimens from Ibiquera, C Bahia); sides of head, chin and throat, and breast rufous, whitish crescent-shaped patch on upper breast, flanks duller, large whitish belly patch (Ibiquera specimens paler below, throat more whitish, breast-crescent only weakly evident); iris dark brown; bill black, lower mandible yellowish or pinkish; legs greyish to yellowish-tinged. Female has white postocular tuft greatly reduced or absent. Juvenile has lightly streaked crown and back, buff-white postocular tuft, pale orange spots on lesser and median wing-coverts, occasionally also on greater coverts, mottled chest, faintly barred flanks. Race <em>vulgaris</em> is very like nominate, but generally darker rufous-brown above, no contrast between crown and back.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Semi-humid, mostly evergreen woodland and gallery forest in NE and interior Brazil, regularly occurring in moderately well-developed second growth; also in more xeric gallery forest on E margins of Planalto Central. Humid forest in SE of range, where fond of bamboo thickets and other dense growth. Mostly above 500 m, but down to below 300 m in far S; reaches edge of natural grassland, at c. 2400 m, on highest peaks in SE Brazil.

Sedentary; some poorly understood post-breeding dispersal.

Takes small arthropod prey from foliage and leaf litter on or near the ground . In a study in SE Brazil, based on faecal samples, ants accounted for 58% of arthropods identified (n = 140) followed by Coleoptera (16%) and spiders (11%) (4 Lima, A.L.C., Manhães, M.A. and Piratelli, A.J. (2011). Ecologia trófica de Conopophaga lineata (Conopophagidae) em uma área de mata secundária no sudeste do Brasil. Rev. Bras. Orn. 19(3): 315–322. Close ), while a more recent study in same region and using same methodology found that the species predominantly consumed Formicidae (32%) and Isoptera (23·6%), with smaller quantities of beetles (Coleoptera), insect larvae and spiders (Araneae) (5 Manhães, M.A., Dias, M.M. and Lima, A.L.C. (2015). Feeding resource partitioning between two understorey insectivorous birds in a fragment of Neotropical cloud forest. Braz. J. Biol.. 75(Suppl. 1): 176–183. Close ). Two analyses of stomach contents of birds collected in Minas Gerais, SE Brazil, reported similar results, finding also seeds, Diptera (flies), Lepidoptera larvae, hymenopterans, cockroaches, scorpions, pseudo-scorpions, Neuroptera, hemipterans and trichopterans (6 Lopes, L. E., A. M. Fernandes, and M. Â. Marini (2005) Diet of some Atlantic Forest birds. Ararajuba 13: 95–103. Close , 7 Lima, C. A., P. R. Siqueira, R. M. M. Gonçalves, M. F. Vasconcelos, and L. O. Leite (2010). Dieta de aves da Mata Atlântica: uma abordagem baseados em conteúdos estomacais. Ornitología Neotropical 21(3):425–438. Close ). Also, single records of an adult feeding a small frog to a nestling, and an individual eating a blue berry of the genus Coccocypsellum (Rubiaceae). Occasionally observed attending army-ant swarms in highlands of SE Brazil (8 Pizo, M. A., and A. S. Melo (2010). Attendance and co-occurrence of birds following army ants in the Atlantic rain forest. Condor 112(3): 571–578. Close ).

Song a series of c. 5–15 sweet, whistled notes, rising slightly and usually ending with slightly louder notes, the whole lasting 1·5–4 seconds, at 2·5–3·5 kHz; also several variants, in far S of range more like a trill of c. 30 notes, with variation potentially clinal; calls include piercing “tchief!” or harder “tcheek!”, and stuttered chatter of rapidly delivered scratchy notes lasting c. 1 second. Male in flight occasionally produces fairly loud whirring sound with outer remiges in aggression or courtship.

Breeds in Aug–Jan in S Brazil, often from Oct in Minas Gerais (9 Marini, M. Â., T. M. Aguilar, R. D. Andrade, L. O. Leite, M. Anciães, C. E. A. Carvalho, C. Duca, F. S. Maldonado-Coelho, and J. Gonçalves (2007). Biologia da nidificação de aves do sudeste de Minas Gerais, Brasil. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 15:367–376. Close ) or Dec in São Paulo, and three nests with eggs in Rio Grande do Sul in late Nov–late Dec (10 Maurício, G. N., G. A. Bencke, M. Repenning, D. Borges Machado, R. A. Dias, and L. Bugoni (2013). Review of the breeding status of birds in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Iheringia Série Zoológica 103(2):163–184. Close ); season late Sept to Nov in Argentina. Apparently monogamous. Nest built from near ground level to almost 2 m above ground, often in relatively open place in understorey, once supported by leaves of the pteridophyte Dicksonia sellowiana (Dicksoniaceae) (10 Maurício, G. N., G. A. Bencke, M. Repenning, D. Borges Machado, R. A. Dias, and L. Bugoni (2013). Review of the breeding status of birds in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Iheringia Série Zoológica 103(2):163–184. Close ); three São Paulo nests had outer diameter (excluding protruding twigs and leaves) 10–14 cm, inner diameter 6·5–7 cm, internal depth 3·5–4 cm, external depth (excluding projections) 7–9 cm, weight (when dry) 21–37 g; territory diameter c. 100 m, home range c. 150 m. Clutch two eggs  (occasionally three or even four, perhaps exceptionally just one) (9 Marini, M. Â., T. M. Aguilar, R. D. Andrade, L. O. Leite, M. Anciães, C. E. A. Carvalho, C. Duca, F. S. Maldonado-Coelho, and J. Gonçalves (2007). Biologia da nidificação de aves do sudeste de Minas Gerais, Brasil. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 15:367–376. Close , 10 Maurício, G. N., G. A. Bencke, M. Repenning, D. Borges Machado, R. A. Dias, and L. Bugoni (2013). Review of the breeding status of birds in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Iheringia Série Zoológica 103(2):163–184. Close ), pale buff or rusty with slightly darker spots around large end, 20–24 mm × 17–18·5 mm; female incubates at night and for part of day, but male incubated for 1–4 hours more per day than female, incubation period c. 2 weeks; both sexes brood and feed chicks, which fledge at c. 2 weeks; a juvenile had attained adult size two weeks later, but still had even shorter tail and small head and bill; one juvenile cared for by female for 45 days. Adult observed performing a distraction display close to one nest (9 Marini, M. Â., T. M. Aguilar, R. D. Andrade, L. O. Leite, M. Anciães, C. E. A. Carvalho, C. Duca, F. S. Maldonado-Coelho, and J. Gonçalves (2007). Biologia da nidificação de aves do sudeste de Minas Gerais, Brasil. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 15:367–376. Close ), perhaps similar to the broken-wing display recently described for C. aurita. Three of nine nests in Minas Gerais were successful, of the rest five were predated and one was abandoned for unknown reasons (9 Marini, M. Â., T. M. Aguilar, R. D. Andrade, L. O. Leite, M. Anciães, C. E. A. Carvalho, C. Duca, F. S. Maldonado-Coelho, and J. Gonçalves (2007). Biologia da nidificação de aves do sudeste de Minas Gerais, Brasil. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 15:367–376. Close ).

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Locally common, and range recently realized to be more widespread than thought in S Brazil, in state of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as extending to Uruguay (11 Maurício, G. N., and R. A. Dias (2000). New distributional information for birds in southern Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and the first record of the Rufous Gnateater Conopophaga lineata for Uruguay. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 120(4): 230–237. Close , 12 Azpiroz, A.B. and Menéndez, J.L. (2008). Three new species and novel distributional data for birds in Uruguay. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club 128(1): 38–56. Close ). In SE Brazil (São Paulo), three nests in 21-ha remnant patch of forest. Status of outlying population in N Mato Grosso do Sul (Serra das Araras) unknown; uncommon to fairly common in humid hilly forest E of Boa Nova, Bahia, but largely absent from mata-de-cipó (drier, viny forest) there; uncommon in semi-deciduous gallery woodland in interior of range, e.g. at Brasília National Park, in Goiás. In S of range, common in Itatiaia and Serra dos Órgãos National Parks, in Rio de Janeiro, as well as in Iguaçu National Park, at the latter in both Brazil and Argentina, although it seems commoner in the dense bamboo tracts on Argentine side (Iguazú National Park). In Paraguay, occurs in Ybicuí National Park, Mbaracayú Forest Nature Reserve, and Estancia Itabó, La Golondrina and Estancia San Antonio Private Nature Reserves.