Guianan gnatcatcher | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Polioptilidae |
Genus: | Polioptila |
Species: | P. guianensis
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Binomial name | |
Polioptila guianensis Todd, 1920
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The Guianan gnatcatcher (Polioptila guianensis) is a species of bird in the family Polioptilidae. It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.[2]
The Guianan gnatcatcher is monotypic. Two former subspecies, Rio Negro gnatcatcher (Polioptila facilis) and Para gnatcatcher (P. paraensis, also called Klages's gnatcatcher) have been treated as separate species since mid-2019. The Inambari gnatcatcher (P. attenboroughi) and Iquitos gnatcatcher (P. clementsi), which were accepted as new species at about that time, are very closely related to it.[3][4][5]
The Guianan gnatcatcher is 10 to 11 cm (3.9 to 4.3 in) long and weighs 5 to 7 g (0.18 to 0.25 oz). The male's head, back, and breast are bluish gray. It has a broken white eye ring. The innermost feathers of its tail are black and the two outermost white. Its throat and belly are white. The female is similar but a paler gray and has a white supercilium.[5]
The Guianan gnatcatcher is found in the Guianas and adjoining Brazil south to the Amazon River.[6] Its range might also extend westward into eastern Venezuela.[2][5] It inhabits the borders and canopy of humid primary forest, savanna forest, and dryland forest.[5]
The Guianan gnatcatcher's diet has not been documented but is assumed to be arthropods like that of other Polioptila gnatcatchers. It actively forages as part of mixed-species flocks.[5]
The Guianan gnatcatcher's breeding phenology is essentially unknown, but "A male was observed feeding a fledgling on 27 November 1984 in French Guiana".[5]
The Guianan gnatcatcher's song is "fairly simple...repeated high notes" [1].[5]
The IUCN has not assessed the Guianan gnatcatcher separately from the larger species complex that predated the 2019 splits. That complex was assessed as of Least Concern.[1] "The species’ ecoregion of primary occurrence, Guianan moist forest, not considered to be at serious risk, given its current and projected conservation status."[5]