SPECIES

Tawny Antpitta Grallaria quitensis Scientific name definitions

Harold F. Greeney and Andrew J. Spencer
Version: 2.0 — Published September 1, 2023

Systematics

Systematics History

For such a drab, relatively unpatterned species, the three currently recognized subspecies of the Tawny Antpitta are fairly well defined. Krabbe and Schulenberg (6) pointed out that the three taxa also differ vocally from each other (see Vocalizations) and may, in fact, represent three separate species, and del Hoyo and Collar (30) enacted such a three-way split.

Geographic Variation

Reasonably marked (for such a generally poorly patterned species) in underparts pattern and color, and even more marked in vocalizations, especially loudsong (see Vocalizations). Greeney (8) also pointed out differences in First Basic (Juvenile) plumage between subspecies alticola and nominate quitensis.

Juvenile alticola are, in a general sense, similar to juvenile quitensis, but with some noticeable differences, particularly in the patterning of the crown. The forecrown is tawny olive with thin black shaft-streaks. The face is dark tawny with scattered dusky feathers creating a finely speckled appearance. The crown, hindcrown, nape, and upper back are blackish or dark gray and coarsely streaked (not spotted or barred as in quitensis) with tawny buff to pale buff. The back is now largely similar to adults, but often has a few scattered feathers with tawny-buff tips and subterminal black bars. The wings are similar to adults, except for the patterned tips of the greater secondary coverts. These rusty-buff or tawny-rufous tips, crossed by thin subterminal black bars, are similar in pattern to those of nominate quitensis, but are seemingly more rufous, less buff. Sample sizes of alticola, however, are small, and it is unclear how consistent this difference is. The chin and throat are clean white, with the remaining underparts overall much like those of adult alticola. Scattered feathers, especially across the lower breast, have dusky spots near the center, and the flanks have a slight grayish wash. The undertail coverts are buffy whitish, the uppertail coverts are warm orange tawny (less rusty than quitensis), and the tail is warm tawny brown with the tips of the rectrices edged pale tawny.

Subspecies

Three subspecies recognized here (31).


EBIRD GROUP (MONOTYPIC)

Tawny Antpitta (Northern) Grallaria quitensis alticola Scientific name definitions

Systematics History

Grallaria alticola Todd, 1919, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 32:115.—Lagunillas, Boyacá, Colombia. (26)

The holotype, an adult collected by Melbourne A. Carriker on 17 March 1917, is held at the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh (CM 59904) (26, 32).

Distribution

East Andes of Colombia (northeast Santander south to Cundinamarca); for a full list of known localities, see Greeney (8).

Identification Summary

Krabbe and Schulenberg (6) noted that alticola is smaller than nominate quitensis and has a smaller bill, is browner above, with the underparts “extensively mottled with white.” The white tips to the breast and belly feathers and overall more yellowish-orange underparts make alticola a particularly distinctive subspecies.


EBIRD GROUP (MONOTYPIC)

Tawny Antpitta (Western) Grallaria quitensis quitensis Scientific name definitions

Systematics History

Grallaria quitensis Lesson, 1844, L’Écho du Monde Savant 11, col. 848.—vicinity of Quito, Ecuador.

The whereabouts of Lesson’s type are currently unknown.

Several years after Lesson described G. quitensis, Grallaria monticola Lafresnaye, 1847, Revue Zoologique 11:68, was named, which, as pointed out by Hellmayr (33), clearly is a junior synonym of quitensis. Prior to this, the name Grallaria monticola was rather widely used in the literature (34, 35, 36, 37). There appear to be two syntypes of Lafresnaye’s name, one (listed as the “type” by Stone [38]) at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia (ANSP 8199), and the other (considered to be probably a “cotype” by Bangs [39]) at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, MA (MCZ 76731). Both are believed to have been collected by Delatre, but the ANSP specimen is labeled “Ecuador” (i.e., perhaps concordant with Lesson’s bird), and that at MCZ is said to come from a high elevation in the Bolivian Andes, which matches Lafresnaye’s type description, although he also mentioned that Delatre had collected the species above Pasto, in what is now Colombia, although he thought it was in Peru! Bolivia, of course, lies far outside the known range of any taxon within the Grallaria quitensis complex, and, as a result, Hellmayr (33) restricted the type locality to Pasto alone.

Distribution

Central Andes of Colombia (Caldas) south to extreme northern Peru (eastern Piura, northwest Cajamarca); for a full list of known localities, see Greeney (8).

Identification Summary

Described under Plumages.


EBIRD GROUP (MONOTYPIC)

Tawny Antpitta (Southern) Grallaria quitensis atuensis Scientific name definitions

Systematics History

Grallaria quitensis atuensis Carriker, 1933, Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia 85:22.—Atuén, 12,000 feet [3,660 m], Amazonas, Peru. (25)

The holotype, an unsexed adult collected by Melbourne A. Carriker on 18 July 1932, is held at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia (ANSP 108127).

Distribution

Central Andes of northern Peru south of Río Marañón, in southern Amazonas and eastern La Libertad; for a full list of known localities, see Greeney (8).

Identification Summary

Krabbe and Schulenberg (6) described atuensis as overall darker and “more distinctly mottled with white below.”

Related Species

The taxon saltuensis, now treated as a species apart, Perija Antpitta (Grallaria saltuensis) , has been suggested to actually represent a subspecies of the Tawny Antpitta (6). Based on general plumage and other morphological characteristics, the Tawny Antpitta falls within the subgenus Oropezus (40, 41). This group contains the Bicolored Antpitta (Grallaria rufocinerea), the Chestnut-naped Antpitta (Grallaria nuchalis), theWhite-throated Antpitta (Grallaria albigula), the Red-and-white Antpitta (Grallaria erythroleuca), the Rufous-faced Antpitta (Grallaria erythrotis), the White-bellied Antpitta (Grallaria hypoleuca), the Yellow-breasted Antpitta (Grallaria flavotincta), the Rusty-tinged Antpitta (Grallaria przewalskii), the Bay Antpitta (Grallaria capitalis), the Gray-naped Antpitta (Grallaria griseonucha), the ‘Rufous Antpitta’ G. rufula complex, the Cundinamarca Antpitta (Grallaria kaestneri), the Urrao Antpitta (Grallaria urraoensis), and the Brown-banded Antpitta (Grallaria milleri). Within this group, it seems likely that the Tawny Antpitta has a close relationship with the 'Rufous Antpitta' complex, but its precise phylogenetic affinities have not been examined in detail. In a molecular phylogeny by Harvey et al. (42), Tawny Antpitta is most closely related to a group of Grallaria containing White-bellied Antpitta, Rufous-faced Antpitta, Red-and-white Antpitta, Rusty-tinged Antpitta, and Bay Antpitta.

Hybridization

No records.

Nomenclature

Usage of nomenclature by various authors, including synonyms, is as follows:

Grallaria quitensis alticola Todd, 1919

  • Gral_quit – Sánchez-González et al. (43) [in part; in data matr.].
  • Grallaria alticola – Todd (26) [description], Todd (32), del Hoyo and Collar (30), BirdLife International (44), del Hoyo et al. (45), BirdLife International (46).
  • Grallaria quitensis – Meyer de Schauensee (47) [in part], Lowery and O’Neill (41) [in part], Meyer de Schauensee (48) [in part], Clements (49)[in part], Morony et al. (50)[in part], Gruson and Forster (51)[in part], Walters (52)[in part], Clements (53)[in part], Meyer de Schauensee (54) [in part], Hilty and Brown (55), Altman and Swift (56)[in part], Hilty and Brown (24), Dunning (57)[in part], Altman and Swift (58)[in part], Sibley and Monroe (59)[in part], Clements (60) [in part], Fjeldså (61) [in part], Stiles (62)[in part], Altman and Swift (63) [in part], Monroe and Sibley (64) [in part], Parker et al. (65)[in part], Parker et al. (66)[in part], Stotz et al. (67) [in part], Manne et al. (68) [in part], Clements and Shany (69) [in part], Bernis et al. (70) [in part], Gill and Wright (71) [in part], Ridgely and Tudor (72) [in part], McMullan et al. (73) [in part], Boyd (74) [in part], King (75) [in part], Avendaño et al. (76) [in part], Xiao et al. (77) [in part], Montoya et al. (29) [in part], Renjifo et al. (78) [in part].
  • Grallaria quitensis alticola – Cory and Hellmayr (79), Carriker (25), Meyer de Schauensee (80), Peters (81), Meyer de Schauensee (82), Olivares (83), Olivares (84), Olivares (27), Howard and Moore (85), Olivares (86), Howard and Moore (87), Cracraft (88), Fjeldså and Krabbe (23), Ridgely and Tudor (2), Clements (89), Rodner et al. (90), Dickinson (91), Krabbe and Schulenberg (6), Restall et al. (20), Clements (92), Salaman et al. (93) [in part], Gill and Donsker (94), Greeney (7), Winger et al. (95), Boesman (96), Freeman and Montgomery (97), Hernández and Cataño (98), Clements et al. (99), Clements et al. (100), Gill et al. (101).

Grallaria quitensis quitensis Lesson, 1844

  • Gral_quit – Sánchez-González et al. (43)[in part; in data matr.].
  • Chamaeza monticola – Bonaparte (102).
  • Grallaria monticola – de Lafresnaye (103) [description], Jardine (104), Sclater (105), Sclater (34), Sclater (106), Sclater (107), Gray (108), Orton (109), Sclater and Salvin (110), von Pelzeln (111), von Pelzeln (112), Sclater (113), von Berlepsch and Taczanowski (114), Sclater (35), Hartert (115), Hartert (116), Dubois (117), Salvadori and Festa (37), Stone (38), Sharpe (118), Goodfellow (119), Ménégaux (120), Brabourne and Chubb (121), Rhoads (1), Ogilvie-Grant (122), Chapman (123), Domaniewski and Sztolcman (10), Chapman (124), Berlioz (125), Moore (126).
  • Grallaria quitensis – Lesson (22) [description], Berlioz (127), Meyer de Schauensee (47) [in part], Lowery and O’Neill (41) [in part], Meyer de Schauensee (48) [in part], Clements (49) [in part], Morony et al. (50)[in part], Gruson and Forster (51)[in part], Parker et al. (128) [in part], Butler (129), Walters (52) [in part], Clements (53) [in part], Parker et al. (130) [in part], Meyer de Schauensee (131) [in part], Hilty and Silliman (132), Valarezo-Delgado (133), Altman and Swift (56) [in part], Carrión (134), Hilty and Brown (135) [in part], Dunning (57) [in part], Barnett and Gretton (136), Altman and Swift (58) [in part], King (137), Sibley and Monroe (59) [in part], Hackett and Rosenberg (138), Ortiz-Crespo et al. (139) [in part], Clements (60) [in part], Bloch et al. (140), Fierro (141), Fjeldså (61) [in part], Stiles (62) [in part], Monroe and Sibley (64) [in part], Altman and Swift (63) [in part], Rasmussen et al. (142), Stotz et al. (67) [in part], Abbruzzese et al. (143), Guerrero (144), Parker et al. (66)[in part], Parker et al. (145)[in part], Baez et al. (146), Poulsen and Krabbe (147), Poulsen and Krabbe (148), Krabbe et al. (149) [in part], Poulsen and Krabbe (150), Ridgely et al. (151), Manne et al. (68) [in part], Cresswell et al. (152), Cresswell et al. (153), Freile (154), Rice (155), Benítez J. et al. (156), Clements and Shany (69) [in part], Verhelst et al. (157), Calderón-Leytón (158), Carrión (159), Freile (160), Ocampo-Tobón (161), Poulsen (162), Amanzo (163), Bernis et al. (70) [in part], Eckhardt (164), Bonaccorso (165), Parra et al. (166), Vellinga et al. (167), Lopes et al. (168) [in part], Greeney and Martin (169), Losada-Prado et al. (170), Gill and Wright (71) [in part], Greeney et al. (171), Martin and Greeney (172), Cadena et al. (173), Parra-Hernández et al. (174), Ayerbe-Quiñones et al. (175), Buitrón-Jurado (176), Dunning (177) [in part], Greeney and Harms (178), Greeney et al. (179), Naranjo (180), Ridgely and Tudor (72) [in part], Greeney et al. (181), Tinoco and Webster (182), Freile et al. (183), McMullan et al. (73) [in part], Arbeláez-Cortés et al. (184), Calderón-Leytón et al. (185), Greeney and Juiña-J. (186), Greeney et al. (187), Boyd (74) [in part], Fernández et al. (188), Greeney (9), Greeney (189), King (75) [in part], Acevedo-Charry (190), Tinoco et al. (191), Martinez (192), Astudillo et al. (193), Lotta et al. (194), Athanas and Greenfield (195), BirdLife International (196), del Hoyo and Collar (30), Lotta et al. (197), Avendaño et al. (76) [in part], Freile et al. (198), Salazar et al. (199), Winger (200), Xiao et al. (77) [in part], Krabbe et al. (201), Astudillo et al. (202), Montoya et al. (29) [in part], Salazar and Mena (203), Lotta et al. (204), Aguilar et al. (205), Renjifo et al. (78) [in part].
  • Grallaria quitensis quitensis – Cory and Hellmayr (79), Bangs (39), Berlioz (206), Carriker (25), Meyer de Schauensee (80), Peters (81), Meyer de Schauensee (82), Howard and Moore (85), Schulenberg and Williams (207), Howard and Moore (87), Cracraft (88), Parker et al. (19), Fjeldså and Krabbe (23), Krabbe (208), Ridgely and Tudor (2), Robbins et al. (209), Williams and Tobias (210), Williams et al. (211), Clements (89), Rodner et al. (90), Ridgely and Greenfield (212), Dickinson (91), Krabbe and Schulenberg (6), Cuesta-Camacho (213), Restall et al. (20), Ridgely and Greenfield (214), Clements (92), Schulenberg et al. (21), Salaman et al. (93) [in part], Schulenberg et al. (215), Gill and Donsker (94), Plenge (216), Plenge (217), Greeney (7), Boesman (96), Aponte et al. (218), Freeman and Montgomery (97), Freile and Restall (219), Clements et al. (99), Freile et al. (220), Clements et al. (100), Gill et al. (101), Plenge (221).
  • Grallaria quitoensis – Black-M. (222).
  • Myiotrichas monticola – Heine and Reichenow (223).

Grallaria quitensis atuensis Carriker, 1933

  • Gral_quit – Sánchez-González et al. (43)[in part; in data matr.].
  • Grallaria atuensis – del Hoyo and Collar (30), BirdLife International (224), del Hoyo et al. (225).
  • Grallaria quitensis – Meyer de Schauensee (47) [in part], Lowery and O’Neill (41) [in part], Meyer de Schauensee (48) [in part], Clements (49) [in part], Morony et al. (50)[in part], Gruson and Forster (51)[in part], Parker et al. (128) [in part], Walters (52) [in part], Clements (53) [in part], Parker et al. (130) [in part], Meyer de Schauensee (54) [in part], Graves (226), Graves (227), Altman and Swift (56) [in part], Dunning (57) [in part], Graves (228), Altman and Swift (58) [in part], Sibley and Monroe (59) [in part], Clements (60) [in part], Fjeldså (229) [in part], Altman and Swift (63) [in part], Dunning (230) [in part], Monroe and Sibley (64) [in part], Parker et al. (66) [in part], Parker et al. (65) [in part], Stotz et al. (67) [in part], Manne et al. (68) [in part], Clements and Shany (69) [in part], Bernis et al. (70) [in part], Valqui (231), Lopes et al. (168) [in part], Gill and Wright (71) [in part], Tobias (232), Ridgely and Tudor (72) [in part], Boyd (74) [in part], King (75) [in part], Xiao et al. (77) [in part].
  • Grallaria quitensis atuensis – Carriker (25) [description], Bond (28), Peters (81), Howard and Moore (85), Howard and Moore (87), Cracraft (88), Parker et al. (19), Fjeldså and Krabbe (23), Clements (89), Dickinson (91), Krabbe and Schulenberg (6), Clements (92), Schulenberg et al. (21), Mark et al. (233), Schulenberg et al. (215), Gill and Donsker (94), Plenge (216), Plenge (217), Greeney (7), Boesman (96), Clements et al. (99), Clements et al. (100), Gill et al. (101), Plenge (221).

Fossil History

Nothing known.

Recommended Citation

Greeney, H. F. and A. J. Spencer (2023). Tawny Antpitta (Grallaria quitensis), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (N. D. Sly, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.tawant1.02