Black-crested antshrike

The black-crested antshrike (Sakesphorus canadensis) is a passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in tropical South America in Trinidad, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, and Peru.

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the black-crested antshrike in his Ornithologie based on a specimen that he mistakenly believed had been collected in Canada. He used the French name La Pie-Griesche de Canada and the Latin name Lanius Canadensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognized by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson in his Ornithologie. This species is now placed in the genus Sakesphorus that was erected by the British ornithologist Charles Chubb in 1918.

The black-crested antshrike's taxonomy is unsettled. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society, the International Ornithological Committee, and the Clements taxonomy recognize these six subspecies:

S. c. pulchellus (Cabanis & Heine, 1860)
S. c. intermedius (Cherrie, 1916)
S. c. fumosus Zimmer, JT, 1933
S. c. trinitatis (Ridgway, 1891)
S. c. canadensis (Linnaeus, 1766)
S. c. loretoyacuensis (Bartlett, E, 1882)

However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats S. c. pulchellus as a separate species, the "streak-fronted antshrike". Clements calls that taxon the "black-crested antshrike (streak-fronted)" within the species.

The other subspecies of the black-crested antshrike differ from the nominate and each other thus:

S. c. pulchellus: male compared to nominate has white streaks on the black crown and throat, a speckled black and white face, lighter pale cinnamon upperparts, and more white on the tail and underparts; female is a paler version of the nominate
S. c. intermedius: very similar to nominate
S. c. fumosus: generally darker than nominate; males have almost black upperparts, very little white on the nape, slate-gray underparts, and little white on the tail; females dark with heavy streaks on the breast
S. c. trinitatis: very similar to nominate
S. c. loretoyacuensis: much like fumosus except male's nape and underparts are almost like the nominate's

Distribution and habitat

thumb|left|the sub-species S. c. loretoyacuensis

The black-crested antshrike has a disjunct distribution. The subspecies are found thus:

The "streak-fronted" pulchellus subspecies of the black-crested antshrike inhabits deciduous and savanna woodlands, gallery forest, and bushy areas in semi-arid regions. The other subspecies are found in those same habitats and also in the edges of igapó and várzea forest. It also occurs locally in mangroves and dune scrub near the Caribbean coast. All of the subspecies occur mostly in the understorey and mid-storey of the forest and also can be found in gardens and city parks. In elevation the species occurs as high as but only reaches in Colombia and in Venezuela.