Red-and-white Antpitta

Appearance

"Grallaria" antpittas are a "wonderful group of plump and round antbirds whose feathers are often fluffed up...they have stout bills [and] very short tails". The red-and-white antpitta is 17 to 18 cm long and weighs 73 to 80 g. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a bright rich rufous crown and nape. Many have a ring of bare grayish or bluish gray skin around their eye. Their back, rump, wings, and tail are a slightly duller and browner rufous than their crown and nape. Their throat and the center of their belly are white; the latter is yellow in the Cordillera de Vilcabamba. The sides of their breast are rufous-brown, and this color with some white mottling forms a band across the breast. Their flanks are rufous-brown with an olive wash. Juveniles are similar to adults but have a buffier hindcrown and nape with fine blackish bars. Their wing coverts and breast band are paler than the adult's. Adults have a medium brown iris, a black bill, and slate-gray to blue-gray legs and feet. Juveniles have a black maxilla with a yellow tip and a yellowish mandible; their iris and leg colors have not been described.

Distribution

The red-and-white antpitta is found on the east side of the Peruvian Andes, mostly in Cuzco Department and slightly into Junín and Ayacucho departments.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the red-and-white antpitta as being of Least Concern. It has a small range; its population size is not known and is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered uncommon to fairly common. It occurs in several protected areas. "Given that the species occupies regenerating habitats, it may even benefit, locally and in the short term, from human activities, such as low-level clearance for subsistence agriculture. In the longer term, habitat destruction could pose a significant threat, in view of the species’ small geographic range, although currently much of this area lacks roads and has a low human population density."

Habitat

It inhabits the understory in the interior and edges of humid subtropical montane forest and mature secondary forest. It appears to favor areas where thick vegetation is regrowing such as in landslide scars, and is also associated with "Chusquea" bamboo stands. In elevation it mostly ranges between 2,100 and 3,000 m though there are records as low as 1,758 m and as high as 3,400 m.

Reproduction

The red-and-white antpitta is thought to breed between January and May. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.

Food

The red-and-white antpitta's diet has not been detailed but it is known to feed on insects and spiders. It is almost entirely terrestrial, where it runs and hops along the ground and up to about 1.5 m above it, usually in dense vegetation. It typically lunges to capture prey from leaf litter and other substrates.