Barred Antshrike (Thamnophilus doliatus)

Male barred antshrike, hunting insects on the feeder.

Female barred antshrike, higher up than usual.

Sadly, the only present images I have of these interesting birds are from my older camera which wasn't as good for these distance shots, especially considering that the birds are so small - authors have written that they are up to 15 cm long, though they do not seem to be so large here - perhaps 11-12 cm long from the ones that I have seen.

These birds love insects, and if you let the feeder contents drop to the earth below you can usually find them happily hunting below. The male is predominantly black while the female is a chestnut brown - both are crested. I've noticed that mating pairs feed near to each other and will often communicate with each other calling ka-ka-ka - a call that speeds up at the end, and it does move its tail to the beat of its voice.

I've accidentally disrupted their nests more than once while doing yardwork, enough so that I actually check for their nests before clearing an area.

When a food source is abundant, they will come out into the open - otherwise, they remain hidden in low bush and annoy would be photographers. Like me. Hopefully I will be able to get better pictures to replace the ones above soon.

Wikipedia reference: Barred Antshrike
More of My Pictures: here.
Other Pictures: here.