SOUTHERN ANTPIPIT Corythopis delalandi FAUNA PARAGUAY

Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this web-site were taken by Paul Smith, Hemme Batjes, Regis Nossent, Frank Fragano,
Alberto Esquivel, Arne Lesterhuis, José Luis Cartes, Rebecca Zarza and Hugo del Castillo and are used with their permission.

SOUTHERN ANTPIPIT Corythopis delalandi
Pipit-like in appearance, but not in habitat preference, for the antpipit is a bird of dense humid forest undergrowth. Here he walks purposefully through the leaf-litter, nodding his head and flicking his tail along the way, and occasionally making short upward flights to snatch an insect from the underside of a leaf with an audible snapping of the bill. This snapping is also used as a defence against predators, netted birds doing so forcefully that you fear their slender bills may break under the pressure. You are most likely to find one by following these snaps or his loud, clear, whistling song to their source, The antpipit has a chequered taxonomic history, nobody seems to know quite who his closest relatives are, but most authorities now consider him to be an aberrant Tyrant Flycatcher (Tyrannidae).

FIGURE 1 - Adult, Hotel Tirol, Departamento Itapúa (Regis Nossent June).
FIGURE 2 - Same individual upperwing (Paul Smith June).
FIGURE 3 - Same individual ventral view (Regis Nossent June).

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2

FIGURE 3

To hear the call of this species hold the mouse over the tab above but do not click the button! It may take a few seconds to download but the button will turn pink when the call is ready to play. Longer versions of this call can be downloaded from the Paraguay page of our partner website Xeno-Canto - the largest collection of freely downloadable Neotropical bird calls available online.