464 



BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



the nests Skutch watched were destroyed by predators, so he was not 

 able to discover the length of the nestling period. 



HABIA FUSCICAUDA (Cabanis): Red-throated Ant-tanager, 

 Frutero Hormiguero Gargantirojo 



Medium size; adult male with entire body dull red, brighter, scarlet- 

 red on center of crown and throat; female with upper surface olive, 

 throat pale yellow, and rest of undersurface olive-buff. 



Description. — Length 177-195 mm. Adult male, median stripe of 

 crown scarlet-red; rest of upper surface dull red; wings and tail dusky 

 brown, edged dull red; chin gray; throat scarlet-red, fading to light 

 dull red on breast, center of belly, and undertail coverts; sides and 

 flanks darker. 



Adult female, upper surface and tail near olive; wing feathers dusky 

 brown, edged olive; chin gray; throat pale yellow, becoming olive-buff 

 on breast, darker on sides, flanks, and undertail coverts. 



Immature male, like female, sometimes more brownish on upper sur- 

 face. 



The Red-throated Ant-tanager is very common in the more humid 

 lowlands and lower foothills on most of the Caribbean slope and more 

 local on the Pacific side. In the Canal Zone area it is very common on 

 the Pacific side (Ridgely, in lift.). The nominate form is known in 

 Panama only from Almirante Bay area of western Bocas del Toro; it 

 ranges north to southern Nicaragua. The race willisi is found from 

 Veraguas to western San Bias on the Caribbean side and on the Pacific 

 side locally in Veraguas, western Province of Panama, and the Canal 

 Zone. Other races occur north to southeastern Mexico and on the 

 Caribbean coast of Colombia. 



This species inhabits the undergrowth of forest and second-growth 

 woodland. It moves about in small, noisy groups even when breeding. 

 In 1911, E. A. Goldman noted that it was usually in the company of 

 ant-thrushes, along the lines of traveling ants, but others have found it 

 less of a regular ant- follower. In his field notes Goldman wrote "when 

 one is shot some of the others are likely to come and alight near the fal- 

 len bird, showing at the same time considerable excitement." Olson 

 (Bird-Banding, 1965, p. 113) also witnessed this sort of concern: 

 when extricating a female from a mist net she began calling and an ex- 

 cited male appeared and put on a convincing "broken-wing act" on the 

 ground of the trail; when the female was released she joined the male 

 and they fluttered wings and rubbed bills. The usual calls of this ant- 

 tanager are harsh and grating, but the male also has an infrequently 



