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ABSTRACT.-We provide the first detailed nesting biology information for the Yellow-breasted Warbling-Antbird (Hypocnemis subflava), a member of the recently split Warbling Antbird complex. We found seven pouch-shaped nests with two eggs or nestlings within Manu National Park. SE Peru. Long incubation sessions (93.7 ± 7.78 minutes, range = 4-480 minutes, n = 18 days) were untaken by both parents and high diurnal nest attentiveness (% of time on the nest) averaged 85.8 ± 1.4% (n = 16) as a result of taking fewer short foraging trips (6.3 ± 0.6 trips/day, range = 3-11; n - 14) that lasted 16.19 ± 1.78 min (range = 1-91; n = 18). Incubation behavior produced an average inner nest temperature of 32.3 ± 0.24 °C (n = 15 days) and average egg temperature of 36.4 ± 0.09 °C (n = 3). Individual nests at different elevations exhibit differences in incubation behavior. The nestling period was 11 days (n = 1 ) and both parents brooded and fed the nestlings. Nest shape, location, and composition were similar to other species in the complex, but egg coloration was variable among species. Received 9 July 2012. Accepted 26 January 2013.
Key words: breeding biology, eggs. Hypocnemis subflava. incubation behavior, nest. Warbling-Antbird.
The Warbling Antbird (Hypocnemis cantator) was considered a widespread polytypic species (Zimmer and Isler 2003), but recently it has been split into six different species based on genetic, vocal, and plumage coloration differences among populations (Bates et al. 1999, Isler et al. 2007). One of these species is the Yellow-breasted Warbling-Antbird (H. subflava), distributed from central Peru to central Bolivia and western Brazil. It occurs in sympatry with the Peruvian Warbling- Antbird (H. peruviana) in part of its range (Isler et al. 2007, Tobias and Seddon 2009). Two subspecies were maintained by Isler et al. (2007), H. s. subflava and H. s. collinsi, with the first one restricted to the Andean foothills in east central Peru (Zimmer and Isler 2003).
Antbird breeding information and nest descrip- tions have increased in recent years, providing not only new natural history data but also insight into the family's phylogenetic history (Zimmer and Isler 2003). Nest architecture and nesting behavior can be useful for avian systematics (Sheldon and Winkler 1999), and this evidence could...