Black-headed Antbird / Roetkop miervogel

Black-headed Antbird (Percnostola rufifrons)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© John S. Dunning	© Carl Beel	© Ward Vercruysse
© Brian O'Shea	© Martin Reid

The Black-headed Antbird is often found low in the forest, especially on the Brownsberg. A recording of the sound of the black-headed antbird was made by Otte Ottema te Onverwacht in 2005 and another recording was made by Jan Hein Ribot on the Brownsberg in 2006.
Photo of a female Black-headed Antbird, made by J.S. Dunning. Then three photos of a male (grey with black on its head and on its chin and some white fringes on its shoulders), made by Carl Beel and Ward Vercruysse on the Brownsberg in 2009 and the third one by Brian O'Shea in the Ralleigh Falls nature reserve in December 2003.

Birdsounds (click on them to listen)
Sound recording of a Black-headed Antbird © Jan Hein Ribot	Sound recording of a Black-headed Antbird © Otte Ottema, bird guide

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:	Percnostola rufifrons
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Thamnophilidae, 46 in Suriname
Dutch:	Roetkop miervogel
English:	Black-headed Antbird
Sranan ('Surinamese'):
Guyana:
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Hormiguero cabecibegro
Portugese (Brazil):
Arowak:
Carib:
French:	Alapi à tete noire

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 465 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 465 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 ).