Art by Barry Kent MacKay
An All-Creatures.org
Art and Photo Presentation

(Artwork - 069)
White-flanked Antwren
(Myrmotherula axillaris)

These tiny birds (about 8 grams, or 0.28 ounces) have a large distribution, all the way from Honduras to southern Brazil, although there is a large break in their known range, with one distinctive and geographically isolated race occupying the coastal region of south-eastern Brazil…a region that hosts many endemic bird species, some quite rare. Fortunately there are places in that distinctive region where the White-flanked Antwren is still common.
 
This is not a wren, of course, but a member of the family known as the “Typical Antbirds”, or Thamnophilidae, which is found only in the western hemisphere, from southern Mexico to southern South America. There are over 200 species and many are small and similar to each other in appearance.  Many of them live up to the “antbird” name by following swarms of ants through tropical jungles. This species eats a variety of small insects and spiders, removing the wings of butterflies and moths before swallowing the bodies. They are found in evergreen forests, some associated with various species of bamboo. I have shown the Central American subspecies, of which the male is black and white, but some races have gray backs. Even within a single subspecies there is often quite a bit of variation on how much white shows in the male bird…in fact, it varies with the individual bird, depending on how he displays his plumage, and how worn the feathers are.
 
This painting was done life size, in gouache watercolours, on paper.

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