Dot-winged Antwren

Appearance

The dot-winged antwren is a warbler-like bird, typically 11 cm long, and weighing 8.5 g. The adult male is mainly velvety black, with a broad white wing bar and white spots on the wing coverts. The female shares the male’s wing pattern, but has dark slate upperparts and rufous underparts. There are significant variations in the plumage depending on the exact subspecies; in the male this mainly involves the amount of white in the wings and tail, and this is reflected in the female. However, in the female the subspecies also differ in the darkness of the upperparts, and the amount of rufous below. Young birds are sooty-brown above, shading to dull cinnamon below. The underpart colouration is more extensive and more rufous in young females.

Behavior

This species has a whistled "peep" call, and the song is an ascending whistle and trill, "chee chee chee-che-che-chr,r,r,r", but with some geographical variations.

Habitat

This is a common bird of the understory of wet forest, especially at edges and clearings, tall second growth, and in cacao plantations.

Reproduction

The female lays two brown-spotted white eggs which are incubated by both sexes, in a small, deep, plant fibre and dead leaf cup nest 1–12 m high in a tree on a thin twig in thick foliage. The male and female parents both feed the chicks.

Food

The dot-winged antwren is found as pairs or family groups, and sometimes with other antwrens as part of a mixed-species feeding flock It feeds on small insects and other arthropods taken from twigs and foliage in the thickets or vine tangles. It is often seen foraging in more exposed positions than its relatives.