Black-chinned Antbird

About the Black-chinned Antbird

The black-chinned antbird (Hypocnemoides melanopogon) is a species of bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

The black-chinned antbird was described by the English zoologist Philip Sclater in 1857 and given the binomial name Hypocnemis melanopogon; it was later transferred to genus Hypocnemoides. It shares that genus with the band-tailed antbird (H. maculicauda). However, some authors have said that the "[r]easons for treatment of Hypocnemoides maculicauda as a separate species from H. melanopogon are weak".

The further taxonomy of the black-chinned antbird is unsettled. The International Ornithological Congress (IOC) assigns it three subspecies, the nominate H. m. melanopogon (Sclater, PL, 1857), H. m. minor (Gyldenstolpe, 1941), and H. m. occidentalis (Zimmer, JT, 1932). The Clements taxonomy and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World do not recognize occidentalis, including it within the nominate.

This article generally follows the two-subspecies model because the range demarcation and plumage... Wikipedia →