Chestnut-belted gnateater

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Chestnut-belted gnateater (Conopophaga aurita)

The chestnut-belted gnateater is a small, dark bird in the gnateater family, Conopophagidae. It lives in the Amazon Basin.

Where it lives
- Habitat: tropical moist lowland forests.
- Range: northern Brazil, southern Colombia, eastern Peru and Ecuador, and the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana).

What it looks like
- It has a stout bill, brown upperparts and crown, a white eyebrow stripe, and pinkish-grey legs.
- Males: black face and throat, chestnut (rufous) chest, buff or white belly.
- Females: rufous face, throat and chest, buff or white belly.
- Some subspecies show more black on the chest.

Taxonomy in brief
- Scientific name: Conopophaga aurita.
- Described in 1789 as Turdus auritus by Johann Friedrich Gmelin; now in genus Conopophaga. It is the type species of its genus.
- Genus name means “gnat-eating”; species name aurita means “eared.”

Subspecies
- C. a. inexpectata (Colombia, Brazil)
- C. a. aurita (Colombia, Brazil)
- C. a. occidentalis (Guianas and northeast Brazil)
- C. a. australis (eastern Peru and southwest Amazon Brazil)

Range details
- Found throughout the Amazon Basin, especially the downstream southern areas.
- Not found in Bolivia.
- Western limit includes eastern and northeastern Peru and parts of northeast Ecuador and southern Colombia.
- The range extends into Amapá and the Guianas to the Atlantic coast, and into eastern Guyana.

Conservation
- IUCN status: Least Concern.