Lanceolated monklet

Micromonacha lanceolata

TAXONOMY

Bucco lanceolata Deville, 1849, Pampa del Sacramento, upper Ucayali River, Peru. Monotypic.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

French: Barbacou lanceolé; German: Streifen-faulvogel; Spanish: Monjita Lanceolata.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

5.1–5.9 in (13–15 cm); 0.67–0.78 oz (19–22 g). Warm brown upperparts, scaled buffy. Whitish nasal tufts and chin feathers,

white loral patch (bordered black) extending across forehead. White underparts heavily streaked black, except for central belly; undertail coverts buffy. Bill black and iris brown.

DISTRIBUTION

Western Costa Rica, west-central Panama; also from southwestern Colombia to western Ecuador and west-central Colombia to northern Bolivia.

HABITAT

At all strata (but usually low down) and most often at borders of primary and secondary humid forest at 980–6,890 ft (300–2,100 m).

BEHAVIOR

Principally solitary, although pairs are probably sedentary and territorial. Usually found sitting unobtrusively at forest edges or sometimes accompanying mixed-species flocks.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Hunts insects from perches and is known to eat berries, at least seasonally.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Nest is placed at end of a 16-in (40-cm) tunnel into a bank. Clutch contains two eggs; estimated incubation period 15 days.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened. Nowhere common, but widespread and thought to be secure.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

None known.