Bicolored antbird

What is now the bicolored antbird was originally described as Myrmeciza leucaspis and included what is now the white-cheeked antbird (now Gymnopithys leucaspis). The current bicolored antbird was described as a separate taxon by the American amateur ornithologist George Newbold Lawrence in 1863 and given the binomial name Pithys bicolor. The two were split into separate species based on the results of a genetic study published in 2007 that found that the white-cheeked antbird was more similar to the rufous-throated antbird (G. rufigula) than it was to the bicolored antbird. These three antbirds are the only members of genus Gymnopithys. The bicolored antbird has these five subspecies: • G. b. olivascens (Ridgway, 1891) • G. b. bicolor (Lawrence, 1863) • G. b. daguae Hellmayr, 1906 • G. b. aequatorialis (Hellmayr, 1902) • G. b. ruficeps Salvin & Godman, 1892 ==Description==

The bicolored antbird is long and weighs . The sexes are the same. Adults of the nominate subspecies G. b. bicolor have a brownish chestnut crown and nape. They have bare blue-gray skin around the eye, a gray forehead, a broad gray band behind the eye, and black cheeks. Their back, rump, wings, and tail are brownish chestnut. Their throat and breast are white with a brown band from their cheek along their flanks. Subspecies G. b. olivascens of the bicolored antbird is much like the nominate but is dull brown behind the eye rather than gray. G. b. daguae is like a darker olivascens. G. b. aequatorialis is darker still, with a rufous forehead and blacker sides. G. b. ruficeps has a brighter rufous forehead and crown than aequatorialis, is blacker behind the eye, and has a darker reddish back and redder sides. ==Distribution and habitat==

The subspecies of the bicolored antbird are found thus: • G. b. olivascens: Caribbean slope of Honduras and Nicaragua through Costa Rica on the Caribbean and Pacific slopes into western Panama • G. b. bicolor: central and eastern Panama into the Pacific slope of northwestern Colombia's Chocó Department • G. b. daguae: Pacific slope of western Colombia from Chocó south to Cauca Department • G. b. aequatorialis: Pacific slope of extreme southwestern Colombia into western Ecuador as far as Azuay Province • G. b. ruficeps: Andes of northern Colombia between Antioquia and Cesar departments and south in the Magdalena Valley to Boyacá Department The bicolored antbird primarily inhabits lowland and foothill terra firme evergreen forest and nearby mature secondary forest. It almost entirely remains in the forest undergrowth. In elevation it reaches in parts of Central America though only in Costa Rica and in Panama. In Colombia it occurs below and in Ecuador below . ==Behavior==

Movement The bicolored antbird is not known to migrate. ==Status==

The IUCN did not recognize the bicolored antbird until 2016, when it was assessed as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range; its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered fairly common across its range. It occurs in many protected areas, both governmental and private, and its range "encompasses extensive intact habitat which is not formally protected, but is still at low risk of development in immediate future". However, "local populations in Honduras, Nicaragua and parts of Costa Rica and Panama have declined or disappeared as entire regions have been cleared for human settlement and agriculture". ==References==