Brazil - Amazonia - Hornero? (1 Viewer)

Hi

Bird seen on 27th Sept 2008, by Rio Solimões, near Manaus.

Closest I've found in pale-legged hornero, but eyes not right.

Help please

Gareth

I have never been to Amizonia but fom the feild guide your I.D. looks pretty good. I'd like to see what others say here.I noticed the bill looks better for Lesser Hornero. Good Luck !

Lesser Hornero is the best match of the Horneros in Birds of northern South America (so that is my guess).

Niels

Looks like a Wing-banded (Band-tailed) Hornero of the aptly named ssp. pileatus (a Brazilian endemic, so Birds of Northern South America doesn't help here). Manaus is virtually on the western border of its distribution, so I presume you weren't too far up the Solimões.

Thanks for the input to date. We were very close to the 'meeting of the waters', just up a small stream.

My reference is 'All the birds of brazil'. That shows lesser with a shorter supercilium.
The wing-banded seems to fit, but book says legs blackish.

Can't find many picture to compare mine with.

I have added some more pictures which might help

Gareth

It looks pretty good for a Lesser Hornero IMO. The Wing-banded Horneros around here have a very rufous cap, not like this bird, although I think the supspecies that would occur in Manaus is the pileatus, with a darker cap. I don't know if it's that dark though, that's why I'm calling it Lesser Hornero.

Rasmus, do you mind explaining why do you think this is a Wing-banded? Is it because of the broad white supercilium? Enlighten us! hehe..

GarethHawkes said:

Thanks for the input to date. We were very close to the 'meeting of the waters', just up a small stream.

My reference is 'All the birds of brazil'. That shows lesser with a shorter supercilium.
The wing-banded seems to fit, but book says legs blackish.

Click to expand...

Wing-banded and Lesser have essentially identical greyish legs. As far as I know, the length of the supercilium does not separate them, but I cannot say it's a feature I've ever actually checked (if there is a difference, at least it is not so obvious that I ever noticed; see below for more on the supercilium, though). When it comes to Brazilian field guides, All the Birds of Brazil is far better than nothing... but not much when it comes to more complex identifications. Unfortunately, other recently published guides for Brazil largely fall in the same category (I'd challenge anyone to ID one of the more complex woodcreepers or nightjars based on those). Regardless, despite the lacks of these guides, their authors should be acknowledged for publishing field guides to a country where little else is available (unless people feel like carrying along a small library, of course!). As I've mentioned elsewhere, there are fortunately other Brazilian field guides in the pipeline.

Aracari said:

It looks pretty good for a Lesser Hornero IMO. The Wing-banded Horneros around here have a very rufous cap, not like this bird, although I think the supspecies that would occur in Manaus is the pileatus, with a darker cap. I don't know if it's that dark though, that's why I'm calling it Lesser Hornero.

Rasmus, do you mind explaining why do you think this is a Wing-banded? Is it because of the broad white supercilium? Enlighten us! hehe..

Click to expand...

Yes, as noted earlier the subspecies near Manaus is the aptly named pileatus. Compared to the "normal" nominate subspecies, it has a much darker crown and auriculars, and really looks quite different. The things to look at when comparing pileatus Wing-banded and Lesser are:

* Size: Lesser smaller than Wing-banded. This, of course, is of limited use when dealing with photos.
* Bill: Somewhat larger in Wing-banded than in Lesser, but less obvious than illustrated/claimed in some books.
* Underparts: Lesser more strongly marked (buffier) below than Wing-banded, but difference typically not as striking as when dealing with Pale-legged versus Wing-banded.
* Wings: Wing-banded, as suggested by its name, has a "double" wing-band (versus a single in Lesser), but this is of little use, except when displaying where this species, as is the case with some other horneros, frequently holds its wings open while calling wildly.
* Tail: Wing-banded has dark spots on the inner webs of the tail-tip (hence its alternative name; Band-tailed), but that's commonly difficult to see (and infrequently visible from above).
* Auriculars and crown: Paler and typically somewhat greyer in Lesser than in Wing-banded (do remember that this relates to pileatus; not nominate).
* Supercilium: Whiter and more contrasting in Wing-banded than in Lesser (again important to note that I'm speaking about pileatus, not nominate).

Without previous experiance in the above mentioned taxa, the last two features (crown, auriculars and supercilium) are typically the easiest to use. You can compare the below photos of the Lesser with the bird discussed in this tread:

1) http://www.aves.brasil.nom.br//files/photos/184/3606/18086.jpg
2) http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/blog/uploaded_images/LesserHornero-777713.JPG

Thanks a lot for the explanation Rasmus. And yes, I agree that we desperately need a better Brazil field guide... fortunately there's one scheduled for next April, you can even find it in amazon.com already.

Thanks for the detailed responses, very much appreciated.

Gareth

Gareth, please upload at least one of these images in the gallery. There is only one image in there, which shows a bird with a much more rufous crown.

And Rasmus, thanks for the detailed answer :t:


Cheers
Niels