Myrmeciza hemimelaena
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
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...
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
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 2 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 3 | Madidi National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-tailed Antbird sighting in Madidi National Park on a given day, based on 23 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 76th most-seen of the 239 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-tailed Antbird in Madidi National Park on a given day, against about 10% in April, June–August and November, the lowest months. March and December have too few records to rate.
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.
3rd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Chestnut-tailed Antbird sightings, Madidi 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%).
Same family: Thamnophilidae
The closest relatives of the Chestnut-tailed Antbird that you can see in Madidi National Park (family Thamnophilidae, Typical Antbirds) are Great Antshrike (about 40%), Barred Antshrike (about 20%) and Black-capped Antwren (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chestnut-tailed Antbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Madidi National Park (23 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.
