Bird Guide

Plain Antvireo vs Spot-breasted Antvireo

Plain Antvireo (Dysithamnus mentalis)

Plain Antvireo

Dysithamnus mentalis

Tiny15 gForest

The plain antvireo is 10 to 13 cm (3.9 to 5.1 in) long and weighs 12 to 16 g (0.42 to 0.56 oz). It is a rather chunky bird with a large head and short tail. Adult males of the nominate subspecies D. m. mentalis have a dark gray forehead and crown and blackish ear coverts. Their upperparts are grayish olive with a hidden white patch between the scapulars. Their wings are dark grayish olive with olive edges on the flight feathers, white tips on the grayish olive greater coverts, blackish median coverts with white tips, and blackish lesser coverts. Voice: The plain antvireo's song is generally a "short...series starting with a few...evenly paced, countable notes at same pitch, notes then gradually becoming more abrupt and dropping in pitch, ending in accelerating roll". Authors have described it as a "high nasal watje watjwatwaturururu sounding as a rattle" and as "a nasal barking series...weu-weu-weu-Weu-Weu-Weu-Weu-Weu'weu'wru'weu'u'u'u".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Plain Antvireo
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Song · Napo: km 11.6 Narupa-Loreto road, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: rodrigo_lazaro · CC BY 4.0
Spot-breasted Antvireo (Dysithamnus stictothorax)

Spot-breasted Antvireo

Dysithamnus stictothorax

Small16 gForest

The spot-breasted antvireo is about 12 cm (4.7 in) long. Adult males have a dark gray forehead and crown, blackish ear coverts, and white spots on the sides of their head. Their upperparts are grayish olive with a hidden white patch between the scapulars. Their wings are blackish with wide chestnut-rufous edges on the flight feathers and white tips on the coverts. Their tail is rufous-olive with narrow white tips on the feathers. Their throat and upper breast are white and the rest of their underparts mostly yellowish. Voice: The spot-breasted antvireo's song is a "rather hurried series of some 20 mellow, slightly staccato, rising and falling notes, the last 3-5 accelerated". Its calls include a "short, upslurred 'chirr', nasal 'qwark', and a series of three notes with first two on same pitch".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Daniel S. Katz · CC BY 4.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Plain Antvireo and Spot-breasted Antvireo.