Chestnut-tailed Antbird

Chestnut-tailed Antbird

Myrmeciza hemimelaena

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

Daily sighting probability ~10% · With luck
at Amboró National Park

In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%

28 Verified sightings at Amboró National Park From 2019 to 2026
1,708 In all 3 parks
November Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Chestnut-tailed Antbird

The southern chestnut-tailed antbird, or chestnut-tailed antbird, (Sciaphylax hemimelaena) is a species of passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru.

The southern chestnut-tailed antbird has a complicated taxonomic history. It was originally described by the English zoologist Philip Sclater in 1857 and given the binomial name Myrmeciza emimelaena. It later acquired the English name "chestnut-tailed antbird" and its current specific epithet hemimelaena. By the early twentieth century it had two recognized subspecies. That subspecies was much later recognized as the separate species M. castanea. Some taxonomic systems call it the "northern chestnut-tailed antbird" and the reduced M. hemimelaena the "southern chestnut-tailed antbird". Other systems retained "chestnut-tailed antbird" for M. hemimelaena and called the newly-separated M. castanea "Zimmer's antbird".

A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2013 found that genus Myrmeciza, as then defined, was polyphyletic. In the resulting rearrangement to... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Recording0:15

Peru · 2010

© dbeadle · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0

Recording0:34

Brazil · 2024

© Luciano Bernardes · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0

Recording0:25

Brazil · 2021

© Marllus Rafael Almeida · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Tambopata National Reserve 🇵🇪 Peru
~30%
2 Manu National Park 🇵🇪 Peru
~20%
3 Amboró National Park 🇧🇴 Bolivia
~10%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Chestnut-tailed Antbird in Amboró National Park?

With luck

About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-tailed Antbird sighting in Amboró National Park on a given day, based on 28 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 127th most-seen of the 273 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Chestnut-tailed Antbird in Amboró National Park?

November

In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-tailed Antbird in Amboró National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August–September and December–April, the lowest months. June has too few records to rate.

What time of day is best to see a Chestnut-tailed Antbird?

Between 7 and 10 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chestnut-tailed Antbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Amboró National Park the best place to see a Chestnut-tailed Antbird?

3rd of 3

Of the 3 parks where we can rate Chestnut-tailed Antbird sightings, Amboró National Park ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Tambopata National Reserve (Peru, about 30%) and Manu National Park (Peru, about 20%).

Where does the Chestnut-tailed Antbird sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Chestnut-tailed Antbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Amboró National Park (28 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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