Common scale-backed antbird

Appearance

In addition to being sexually dimorphic, the plumages of the subspecies are highly variable, leading to speculations that the common scale-backed antbird as presently defined may include more than a single species. Males of all subspecies, and females of some subspecies have white bars on the back, leading to its English name common scale-backed antbird.

Naming

The common scale-backed antbird 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". It was subsequently included in the genus "Hylophylax", but was found to not be closely related to the other species in the genus and was placed in "Willisornis". It was briefly placed in "Dichropogon", but this name is preoccupied by a genus of asilid flies. It was formerly considered conspecific with the Xingu scale-backed antbird.

There are five subspecies:
⤷  "W. p. poecilinotus" – south Venezuela, the Guianas and northeast Brazil
⤷  "W. p. duidae" – east Colombia, south Venezuela and northwest Brazil
⤷  "W. p. lepidonota" – southeast Colombia, east Ecuador and northeast Peru
⤷  "W. p. griseiventris" – southeast Peru, north Bolivia and southwest Amazonian Brazil
⤷  "W. p. gutturalis" – northeast Peru and west Amazonian Brazil

Habitat

Its natural habitat is tropical moist lowland forests. As with other species of antbirds, it regularly follows swarms of army ants as they flush insects and other arthropods out of the leaf litter.