Diet and Foraging

The diet of Rufous-faced Antpitta is poorly undocumented, but almost certainly is dominated by invertebrates. Remsen et al. (1982) report the stomach contents from seven individuals as including arthropods and a few small seeds. These arthropods included a 15 mm long caterpillar (presumably Lepidoptera), beetles (Coleoptera), ants (Formicidae; Hymenoptera), and spiders (Aranae). Like other species of Grallaria, earthworms likely are important for adults and for feeding young in the nest. To date, however, Rufous-faced Antpitta has not joined many other of its congeners as a species that easily is attracted to worm-feeding stations (Woods et al. 2011).