Silvered Antbird - BirdForum Opus

Male, subspecies argentata
Photo © by Momo
La Selva Lodge, Ecuador.

Sclateria naevia

Identification

14–16 cm (5½-6¼ in)

• Dark grey crown and upperparts
• Grey supercilium
• Blackish-grey wings and tail
• Two rows of white spots on wings
• White underparts extensively and broadly streaked with grey
  

Female has dark brown upperparts, with buff wing spots and grey-streaked underparts.

Distribution

Photo © by Xyko Paludo
Candeias do Jamari, RO, Brazil, 18 August 2019

Caribbean and South America: found in Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Four subspecies are recognized^[1]:

• S. n. naevia:

• East Venezuela to the Guianas and north-eastern Amazonian Brazil; Trinidad

• S. n. diaphora:

• South-central Venezuela (lower River Caura drainage in north-western Bolívar)

• S. n. toddi:

• South-central Amazonian Brazil (lower River Madeira to River Tocantins)

• S. n. argentata:

• South East Colombia to northern Bolivia, south-western Venezuela and western Amazonian Brazil

female : nominate subspecies
Photo © by Jacamar
Near Sisters, East Bank, Berbice, Guyana.

Habitat

They live in the understorey and on the ground of flooded evergreen forests.

Behaviour

Diet

Not a lot known; however, they eat a variety of insects such as beetles and arachnids.

Breeding

Nesting is poorly known but in the couple of known examples, the nest was an open cup tied to branches low above water. inner diameter about 2-3 inches. The nest was constructed in two layers, inner layer of thin black rootlets and the outer layer of thicker rootlets and moss with a covering of ferns etc. Litter size seems to be 2, with eggs white with heavy reddish markings

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. David and Londoño 2011. First description of nest of Silvered Antbird with notes on eggs and nestlings. Ornithologia Neotropical 22: 307-11
3. Zimmer, K., Isler, M.L. & de Juana, E. (2019). Silvered Antbird (Sclateria naevia). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/56812 on 29 August 2019).

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Silvered Antbird. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 3 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Silvered_Antbird

External Links

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