Common Scale-backed Antbird

About the Common Scale-backed Antbird

The common scale-backed antbird (Willisornis poecilinotus) is a species of passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

The common scale-backed antbird has a complicated taxonomic history. It was described and illustrated by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1847 and given the binomial name Hypocnemis poecilinotus. The specific epithet is from the Ancient Greek poikilonōtos "with variegated back" (from poikilos "spotted" and nōton "back"). It was subsequently included in the genus Hylophylax, but was found to not be closely related to the other species in the genus and then was briefly placed in genus Dichropogon. This name is preoccupied by a genus of asilid flies (Dichropogon Bezzi, 1910) so the current genus Willisornis was created for it.

The common scale-backed antbird has these five subspecies: W. p. poecilinotus (Cabanis, 1847) W. p. duidae (Chapman, 1923) W. p. lepidonota (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1880) W. p. griseiventris (Pelzeln, 1868) W. p. gutturalis (Todd, 1927)

The plumages of the subspecies... Wikipedia →