Common Scale-backed Antbird / Schubrug miervogel

Common Scale-backed Antbird (Willisornis poecilinotus)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Carl Beel	© Carl Beel	© Jan Hein Ribot
© Aernout Nieuwkerk	© Ton Plug

The Scale-backed Antbird makes a piping call that resembles the sound of the much larger Blue-throated Piping-guan. The Scale-backed Antbirds often follow the columns of army ants, but are also seen foraging in pairs. They are common at the Brownsberg.
Two photos of a male Scale-backed Antbird by Carl Beel, made at the Brownsberg in March 2009 and a female Scale-backed Antbird by Jan Hein Ribot, also at the Brownsberg in Suriname in 1980.

Birdsounds (click on them to listen)
Sound recording of a Common Scale-backed Antbird © Steven Wytema

Distribution

Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least four observations on different days and the largest ones ten or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Not all places in Suriname have been equally often visited by birders, so the distribution of the squares gives an indication of the whereabouts of the birds, but also of the birders. Some places deep in the south have no reported bird observations, by experienced birders, within 60 kilometer.

Abundance in different areas
coastal zone (blue dots on the map) :
northern savannas (yellow dots (in the north)) :
rainforest under 400 m (red dots) :
rainforest above 400 m (red dots) :
Sipaliwini savanna (yellow dots (in the south)) :
A blank is shown if not convincingly reported in the zone. Data interpreted by Arie Spaans, Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot.

Names
Scientific name:	Willisornis poecilinotus
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thamnophilidae, 46 in Suriname
Dutch:	Schubrug miervogel
English:	Common Scale-backed Antbird
Sranan ('Surinamese'):
Guyana:
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Hormiguero lomo escamado
Portugese (Brazil):
Arowak:
Carib:
French:	Fourmillier zébré

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 141 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.	The reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest. Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences. The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Observations through the year

Observations of breeding through the year

The 141 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.

The reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest.

Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences.
The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Last update: September 2024 by Jan Hein Ribot. Please mail your comments, photos to: jhribot ( residing at ) gmail (point!) com.
observations can be uploaded to suriname.observation.org or ebird.org ).