Studies of Ant-Following Birds North of the Eastern Amazon

Abstract

Birds that prey on arthropods flushed by army ants north of the eastern Amazon were studied at Serra do Navio and Reserva Ducke <Brazil) and at Nappi Creek and Bartica (Guyana). Regular antfollowers are two medium-sized antbirds (Percnostola tufifrons and Gymnopitbys rufigula.) and two smaller cnes (Pitbys albifrons and Hylopbylax poecilonota), !Jlus five woodcreepers of differing sizes (from very large Hylexetastes perrotti through Dendrocolaptes picumnus, D. certhia, and Dendrocincla merula. to medium-sized Dendrocincla fuliginosa). Four other regular ant-followers occur in the region but were not found at the study areas. Forty-five gpecies of casual or nonprofessional ant-followers, including 16 antbirds, 5 woodcreepers, and 5 manakins, also were recorded. Percnostola rufifrons tends to be at the forest edge or in secohd growth. Pitbys albifrons works around Gymnopithys rufiguJa, Hylophylax poecilonota peripheral to both, in the forest interior. The large Dendrocolaptes picumnus and mediumlarge Dendrocincla merula often capture prey near the ground, like antbirds. Unlike antbirds, which usE: vertical or horizontal slender perches, the woodc.reepers use thick vertical perches. Dendrocolaptes certhia and Dendrocincla fuliginosa also tend te c::.pture prey bigh over the ground-foxaging antbirds. Tbe woodcreepers tend to forage lower at midday . Hylexetastes perrotti is rare, and overlaps strongly with D. picumnus. There is fairly large overlap among the 9 professional ant-followers, and large ones chase away smaller ones. Nonprofessional birds tend to forage briefly or periphcrally wben or slíghtly after lhe professional species are active. They also forage above the antbirds and below or above the woodcreepers, and concentrate at forest edges or in second growth. The guild of ant-following birds in this region differs fairly widely from guilds in Panamá and ut Belém, Brazil; the absence of large antbirds and the predominance of large woodcreepers north of the Amazon are the major differences· In neotropical forests, many species of birds prey on arthropods fleeing from advancmg swarms of army ants. In different regions. different "guilds" (Aoot, 1967) or assemblages of species follow the army ants. Johnson (1954), Slud (1960). and Willis (1960, 1967) report on some guílds of ant-following birds of Caribbean Central America. In Amazonia, antfollowing guilds differ across the major rivers (Willis, 1968b(Willis, , 1969. Here we give the first report, except for a few notes in Beebe, Hartley, and Howes (1917) and in Haverschmidt (1968). on the ant-following birds of the wide forests north of the eastern Amazon. STUDY AREASTo observe these guilds. Oniki visited Serra do Navio (Amapá, Brazil) 15 April to 19 May 1968 and Willis visited Nappi Creek (Guyana) 24 December 1961 to 4 January 1962, Bartica (Guyana) 14-15 January 1962, and Reserva Ducke (Amazonas. Brazil) 9 to 12 March 1966.Serra do Navio (0° 55' N, 52° 01' W), a hilly manganese district managed by ICOMI (Indús-tria e Comércio de Minérios S...

Comportamentos interespecíficos entre Callithrix jacchus (Linnaeus) (Primates, Callitrichidae) e algumas aves de Mata Atlântica, Pernambuco, Brasil

“…Cuculidae, Dendrocolaptidae, Furnariidae, Formicariidae, Tyrannidae, Pipridae, Muscicapidae e Troglodytidae) que ali encontram uma grande concentração de alimento (ONIKI 1972, ONIKI & WILLIS 1972, WILLIS & ONIKI 1992.…”

Myrmotherula Antwrens (Aves, Formicariidae) as army ant followers

“…5, Myrrnotherula guttata (Rufous-bellied Antwren), followed 1 burchelli raid at N a ppi Creek (Oniki & Willis, 1972) and 2 at Reserva Ducke (3 birds; Wechsler observations). Haverschmidt (1968) records it following ants in Surinam.…”

The persistence of ant-following birds in small amazonian forest fragments

“…ΑΠ of these species follow army ants at least facultatively, and three can be considered obligate and followers (Oniki & Willis, 1972;Willis & Oniki, 1978;Willis, 1977;Willis, 1983;Harper, unpubl. data).…”