Sooty Antbird

About the Sooty Antbird

The sooty antbird (Hafferia fortis) 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 sooty antbird was described and illustrated by the English ornithologists Philip Sclater and Osbert Salvin in 1868 and given the binomial name Percnostola fortis. The species was later included in the genus Myrmeciza. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013 found that Myrmeciza was polyphyletic. In the resulting rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, the sooty antbird was moved to the newly erected genus Hafferia.

The sooty antbird shares genus Hafferia with the blue-lored antbird (H. immaculata) and Zeledon's antbird (H. zeledoni). It has two subspecies, the nominate H. f. fortis (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1868) and H. f. incanescens (Todd, 1927).

The sooty antbird is 17 to 19 cm (6.7 to 7.5 in) long and weighs 42 to 48 g (1.5 to 1.7 oz). Both sexes have a ring of light blue bare skin around their eye and a red iris. Adult males of the nominate subspecies are mostly very dark gray with a brown tinge on their wings and a seldom... Wikipedia →