Order
Passeriformes
Family
Grallariidae
Genus
Grallaria
 
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Version 1.0

This is a historic version of this account.  Current version

SPECIES

White-bellied Antpitta Grallaria hypoleuca

Thomas S. Schulenberg, Edwin R. Price, and Guy M. Kirwan
Version: 1.0 — Published March 2, 2012

Breeding

Introduction

Specimens of White-bellied Antpitta in breeding condition were collected from March-September in the central and eastern Andes of Colombia (Hilty and Brown 1986). A specimen from July in northern Peru contained a fully-formed, light blue egg in the oviduct (Parker et al. 1985).

A single nest has been described from primary cloud forest on the eastern Andean slope of Ecuador in May/June (Price 2003). It was located in a fork in the trunk of a live tree, about 1.25 m above the ground. The nest was a cup constructed from twigs and rootlets, and had an outside diameter of 14.2 cm, an inside diameter of 10.7 cm, and an inside depth of 6.4 cm.

The clutch was comprised of 2 light greenish eggs with spots that may have been nest stains. Eggs were 9.17 g and 7.85 g, and measured 32 x 24 mm and 30 x 23 mm (Price 2003).

Both parents shared incubation duties in bouts lasting 23-124 min (Price 2003). The adults were often absent in the early morning, but after about 9:00, the nest was continuously covered until at least 13:30. Exchanges between adults were brief and unceremonious, but adults sometimes arrived with a small twig that was added to the nest upon commencing incubation. No mate feeding was observed.

Hatchlings were covered in gray down and had orange bills and gapes (Price 2003). The nestling period was not determined, but is thought to be long in Grallaria antpittas (i.e., 17-21 days; Greeney et al. 2008).

Recommended Citation

Schulenberg, T. S., E. R. Price, and G. M. Kirwan (2012). White-bellied Antpitta (Grallaria hypoleuca), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.whbant3.01