this is the cinereous antshrike of northern interior South America, with a second disjunct population in southeastern coastal Brazil. curiously, this disjunct population is the type species - as a layman, i think this of all situations would call for the separation of the species into different ones, but i digress. the cinereous antshrike contains five total subspecies, who live largely throughout the Amazon rainforest. "antshrikes" are not meaningfully related to true shrikes, though their intimidatingly hooked bill had whoever originally named them thinking otherwise. instead, they belong to the family of antbirds.
at risk of sounding like a broken record, i'll repeat the interesting fact i feel the need to bring up whenever we have an antbird; their name comes from a behavior developed by some members of the family, that being the following of swarms of army ants across the forest floor in order to catch insects which reveal themselves in their haste to escape the ants' path.
today's critter does dabble in antwatching; in fact, it is rarely ever seen outside the company of a mixed-species flock, ant-chasing or otherwise. this is to take advantage of the presence of the other birds; the ants aren't the only thing which inspires terror in insects! arboreal insects flushed from their hiding spots by birds who hadn't noticed them are another staple of this critter's diet. in fact, as more birds join the ant-watchers, it keeps its activity higher and higher in the trees, feeding on the increasingly abundant bird-flushed insects and not bothering with fighting for a good ant vantage point. (v-ant-age point?)
they exhibit the very characteristic chromatic dimorphism that antshrikes tend towards - females are red-brown and males are slate grey. all birds, however, bear a patch of white on their backs, usually hidden by their darker feathers. exposing this white patch is used as a distraction display to lead predators away from their nests. all birds also have big wet pathetic dewy eyes. all the better to see you with, my dear!
17 July 2026
