Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE FREE-TOED PERCHING BIRDS
THE ANT-PIPITS
(Family Conopophagida)
This small and relatively unimportant family comprises but two genera and sixteen species, all natives of tropical South America. In some respects, as in the depressed bills and scutellation of the tarsus, they appear to be related to the Tyrant-birds, with which they have been sometimes classed, but in the structure of the syrinx they indicate their agreement with the Ant-birds, but from which they, together with the next family, may be distinguished at once by the four-notched sternum. They are small birds, none of them exceeding five and a half inches in length, with relatively short, rounded wings and typically very short tails, while the rump is clothed with long, lax feathers. In the typical genus (Conopophaga) the prevailing color is brown above and ashy brown or grayish banded with chestnut beneath, the throat either being black, gray, or white, and in several of the species there is a stripe or pencil of white feathers behind the eyes. In the other genus (Corythopis) the bill and tail are longer and the hind claw slenderer but less curved. The plumage is olive-brown above and white beneath, with a breast patch and stripes of black. Very little is known of the habits of any member of the family.