The plain antvireo (Dysithamnus mentalis) is a passerine bird species in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Mexico, every Central American country except El Salvador, on both Trinidad and Tobago, and in every mainland South American country except Chile, French Guiana, Suriname, and Uruguay.
Taxonomy and systematics
The plain antvireo was described by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1823 and given the binomial name Myothera mentalis. It is now placed in the genus Dysithamnus which was introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1847.
The plain antvireo has these 18 subspecies:
D. m. septentrionalis Ridgway, 1908
D. m. suffusus Nelson, 1912
D. m. extremus Todd, 1916
D. m. semicinereus Sclater, PL, 1855
D. m. viridis Aveledo & Pons, 1952
D. m. cumbreanus Hellmayr & Seilern, 1915
D. m. andrei Hellmayr, 1906
D. m. oberi Ridgway, 1908
D. m. ptaritepui Zimmer, JT & Phelps, 1946
D. m. spodionotus Salvin & Godman, 1883
D. m. aequatorialis Todd, 1916
D. m. napensis Chapman, 1925
D. m. tambillanus Taczanowski, 1884
D. m. olivaceus (Tschudi, 1844)
D. m. tavarae Zimmer, JT, 1932
D. m. emiliae Hellmayr, 1912
D. m. affinis Pelzeln, 1868
D. m. mentalis (Temminck, 1823)
Description
The plain antvireo is 10 to 13 cm (3.9 to 5.1 in) long and weighs 12 to 16 g (0.42 to 0.56 oz). It is a rather chunky bird with a large head and short tail. Adult males of the nominate subspecies D. m. mentalis have a dark gray forehead and crown and blackish ear coverts. Their upperparts are grayish olive with a hidden white patch between the scapulars. Their wings are dark grayish olive with olive edges on the flight feathers, white tips on the grayish olive greater coverts, blackish median coverts with white tips, and blackish lesser coverts. Their tail is dark grayish olive with narrow white tips on the feathers. Their throat and upper breast are white with light gray spots and their sides olive gray....
