Conopophaga is a genus of birds in the gnateater family. Its members are found in forest and woodland in South America.
Taxonomy and species list The genus Conopophaga was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. The name combines the Ancient Greek kōnōps meaning "gnat" with -phagos meaning "-eating". The type species was subsequently designated as the chestnut-belted gnateater by George Robert Gray in 1840. Peters incorrectly gives the page in Gray 1840 as 41. The genus now contains ten species, all with "gnateater" in their common names.
Image Scientific name Common name Distribution Rufous gnateater Conopophaga lineataeastern Brazil from Rio Grande do Sul north to central Brazil Chestnut-belted gnateater Conopophaga auritaAmazonia and the Guianas Black-breasted gnateater Conopophaga snethlageaeAmazonian Brazil. Hooded gnateater Conopophaga robertinorthern Brazil Ash-throated gnateater Conopophaga peruvianawestern Amazon Basin of Brazil, Peru and Ecuador Ceará gnateater Conopophaga cearaeBrazilian states: Ceará, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande Do Norte, and Alagoas Slaty gnateater Conopophaga ardesiaca Yungas of Bolivia and eastern Peru Chestnut-crowned gnateater Conopophaga castaneiceps Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru Black-cheeked gnateater Conopophaga melanopsBrazil Black-bellied gnateater Conopophaga melanogasterAmazon Basin of Brazil and northern Bolivia
Distribution and habitat Gnateaters are birds found in the undergrowth of forest, woodland, and bamboo stands, with most species in the Amazon Basin, the Atlantic Forest, and the East Andean slopes. All are associated with dense thickets. While they are always found near the ground, seldom rising more than 1.5 m up, they also seldom travel or spend much time on the ground itself (though they do feed there; see diet).
They are round, short-tailed, and long-legged birds, about in length. They are quite upright when standing. They are sexually dimorphic, with various shades of brown, rufous, olive, white, grey and black being the dominating colours. Most Conopophaga species have a white tuft behind the eye.
Food and feeding Gnateaters are insectivorous as the group name implies. They feed mostly using two methods; one is to perch above the forest floor until prey is spotted, then lunge down to the ground to snatch it; having landed on the ground to snatch a prey item, it will not remain on the forest floor for more than a couple of seconds. The second method used by gnateaters is to glean insects directly from the foliage, trunks, and branches of low vegetation. Typical prey items include spiders, caterpillars, insect larvae, grasshoppers and beetles; individuals of some species have also been observed eating fruit, and in one case a frog.
References
Rice, Nathan H. (2005b): Further Evidence for Paraphyly of the Formicariidae (Passeriformes). Condor 107(4): 910–915. [English with Spanish abstract] PDF fulltext