Clytoctantes is a South American genus of passerine birds in the antbird family, Thamnophilidae. Males are grey or black and females are mainly rufous. The stubby, hefty bill has a distinctly upcurved lower mandible and a straight culmen (a large version of the bills of the recurvebills), which possibly is a modification for opening bamboo stems in their search for insects. The two species were feared to be extinct or nearly so, until both were rediscovered in 2004.

Clytoctantes
Recurve-billed bushbird (Clytoctantes alixii)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Thamnophilidae
Genus: Clytoctantes
Elliot, 1870
Type species
Clytoctantes alixii[1]
Elliot, 1870
Species

See text

Species edit

The name "bushbird" is shared with the rather similar, but smaller-billed black bushbird from the monotypic genus Neoctantes.

References edit

  1. ^ "Thamnophilidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.