Giant Antshrike

batara cinerea

Thamnophilidae · Antbirds, Antwrens

Disc 2 · 2001 listed
Disc 3 · 2006 listed
Disc 1 · 2011 listed

The account

Description

35 cm. A large antshrike the size of a blue jay which is surprisingly difficult to observe. The big, grayish yellow, hooked bill and the long tail are prominent.

Male has a black, crested crown and a black back with narrow white banding. Below slate-gray, the sides of the lower belly banded black and white. Tail black, banded white.

The female has a rusty crown becoming black further back. Back banded narrowly buff on black. Underside buff, with black banding on the sides of the lower belly.

The disc records this picture against the bird without a caption. Disc 3 · 2006

Where it was recorded

The discs' own checklists select Giant Antshrike at 16 localities.

Historical checklist localities on the disc's own area map — the red dots the original program drew, placed by its recovered projection. Not a range map: it shows the places whose checklists record the bird, nothing more. 1 has no usable coordinate and is listed below unplotted.

Barreiro Rico BRSB
Boraceia BOSB
Campos do Jordão CASB
Fazenda Intervales FASB
Jureia-Peruibe JUSB position not recoverable
Nucleo Sta. Virginia NUSP
Parati PARB
PE Carlos Botelho PCSB
PE Jacupiranga PJSB
Reserva Ecológica Guapiacú RERB
Serra Bocaina SESB
Serra da Cantareira SRSB
Serra dos Orgãos SRRB
Serra dos Tucanos SDTC
Sete Barras STSB
Ubatuba UBSB

How the map was made

The original program computed each red dot at display time from the locality's coordinates, using its map library and one of five base maps drawn for the screen widths of the day. That library's projection — an oblique rotation of the sphere about the map's own centre, 23.7°S 47.4°W — was read from the program and checked against the graticule the same program drew into the base maps: it reproduces every grid intersection to within about a pixel. The dots here use that projection on the 1280-pixel base map, with the coordinates the discs record. Nothing was placed by hand, no modern map data was used, and a place whose coordinate is incomplete, out of range or beyond the map's edge is listed rather than guessed.

The discs carried location maps only; none shows a distribution or range.

Voice

Song is a sequence of loud and high descending whistles like 'diu diu diu diu diu' increasing in speed. Call is a low descending repeated 'chiurrr'. A rarely heard call (vocalizations # 6) is a sequence of 'ziu ziu ziu ziu..'.

Behavior

Frequently in pairs. Extremely shy and skulking low in dense brush and forest, although some times approaching the observer in a curious manner. Usually well hidden and hard to see, especially when singing. Much easier to observe when foraging in the canopy of the forest.

Habitat and status

Uncommon at all levels of humid forest, forest borders and secondary brush, but mostly in lower growth.

Distribution

Throughout the area, but rare or absent close to the shore. Regularly encountered in the Serra Mantiqueira, near Campos do Jordão. Also Fazenda Intervales, PE PE Jacupiranga. To 1900 meters in the Serra Mantiqueira.

Taxonomy notes

Seems to undergo significant long term fluctuations with regard to its frequency of occurrence. In some years quite common in certain areas, where it cannot be found in other years.

Decoded from the disc's own bytes. Each part is shown under the heading the disc files it under, and the wording, spelling and punctuation are the author's.

Vocalizations

Call. Fazenda Intervales, 11/5/95. Sunny, 30°C. Dense secondary scrub. With Trogon viridis.
Call. Fazenda Intervales, 11/29/97. Sunny, 27°C. Secondary forest.
Song. 10/23/99, Serra da Mantiqueira, Agulhas Negras road. Clear, cool (16°C), in the morning fog. Montane forest. With Phylloscartes difficilis, Thamnophilus caerulescens, Tijuca atra, Basileuterus leucoblepharus.
Song and call. 10/23/99, Serra da Mantiqueira, Agulhas Negras road. Clear, cool, 18°C. Montane forest. With Tijuca atra, Chiroxiphia caudata, Basileuterus leucoblepharus.
Song, PE Jacupiranga State Park, 10/24/94, dense scrub in clearing of primary forest,. With Procnias nudicollis, Vireo olivaceus.
Call. Serra das Orgaos, 10/29/00. Rainy. Primary rainforest. With Dysithamnus xanthopterus.

Recording files on the disc

4463.mp3 Call. Fazenda Intervales, 11/5/95. Sunny, 30°C. Dense secondary scrub. With Trogon viridis.
8578.mp3 Call. Fazenda Intervales, 11/29/97. Sunny, 27°C. Secondary forest.
2774.wav Song. 10/23/99, Serra da Mantiqueira, Agulhas Negras road. Clear, cool (16°C), in the morning fog. Montane forest. With Phylloscartes difficilis, Thamnophilus caerulescens, Tijuca atra, Basileuterus leucoblepharus.
2067.wav Song and call. 10/23/99, Serra da Mantiqueira, Agulhas Negras road. Clear, cool, 18°C. Montane forest. With Tijuca atra, Chiroxiphia caudata, Basileuterus leucoblepharus.
7739.wav Song, PE Jacupiranga State Park, 10/24/94, dense scrub in clearing of primary forest,. With Procnias nudicollis, Vireo olivaceus.
5136.mp3 Call. Serra das Orgaos, 10/29/00. Rainy. Primary rainforest. With Dysithamnus xanthopterus.

Across the three discs

The work was published on three discs — Disc 2 in 2001, Disc 3 in 2006 and Disc 1 in 2011. Where they differ, that is a difference between historical releases, and it is never merged away. The 2011 disc is not treated as correcting the earlier ones.

Which discs list this bird

Disc 2 · 2001 — in this disc's bird list
Disc 3 · 2006 — in this disc's bird list
Disc 1 · 2011 — in this disc's bird list

How that was established

Disc 2 · 2001: aux_nonzero;local_checklist_byte45_flag_1
Disc 3 · 2006: aux_nonzero;local_checklist_byte45_flag_1
Disc 1 · 2011: aux_nonzero;local_checklist_byte45_flag_1

The disc's own record fields that place the bird on its list: a non-empty entry in the species table, and the byte that marks it as selected on a local checklist.

The account in the Disc 1 · 2011 revision

The 2011 Disc 1 revision carries this account text unchanged from the Disc 3 release.

The work's own taxonomy

The discs carried three parallel name schemes. All three are shown as recovered; none is a modern taxonomy and none has been updated.

Scheme	Scientific name	English name	Family
WORLD	batara cinerea	Giant Antshrike	Thamnophilidae
CLEMENTS	batara cinerea	Giant Antshrike	Thamnophilidae
AOU_HM	batara cinerea	Giant Antshrike	Thamnophilidae

Source details

Identifier on this site: seb_species_0107
Account identifier: seb_account_0107
Account number on the disc: 107
Source edition: CD03 / 2006 package
Original taxonomy scheme: WORLD
Structure status: heuristic; decoded_account_text and segment JSON remain authoritative