About Gymnopithys leucaspis bicolor (Lawrence, 1863)
This entry describes the subspecies Gymnopithys leucaspis bicolor of the white-cheeked antbird. The white-cheeked antbird measures 13.5 to 15 cm (5.3 to 5.9 in) in length and averages approximately 24 g (0.85 oz) in weight. Adult males of the nominate subspecies G. l. leucaspis have a chestnut-brown crown and nape. They have bare blue skin surrounding the eye, and a blackish band that runs from the lores through the eye, continuing down the side of the neck and along the flanks. Their back, rump, wings, and tail are chestnut-brown, with some rufous edging on the wing and tail feathers. Their cheeks, throat, and breast are white, and their lower belly is dark brown. Adult females have identical plumage to males, with the additional feature of a cinnamon patch between the scapulars. Juveniles have brownish underparts before their white feathers develop. Subspecies G. l. castaneus is darker than the nominate subspecies, with blacker sides. G. l. peruanus has darker upperparts than the nominate. G. l. lateralis has browner upperparts than the nominate and paler undertail coverts that can be white. The subspecies of the white-cheeked antbird have the following separate ranges. G. l. leucaspis is found in the Meta Department of eastern Colombia. G. l. castaneus ranges from Putumayo Department in south-central Colombia, south through eastern Ecuador west of the Rio Napo, into northern Peru as far as the Rio Marañón. G. l. peruanus occurs in north-central Peru, south of the Marañón in the departments of Amazonas, Loreto, and Martín. G. l. lateralis is found in southeastern Colombia from Caquetá Department, south into extreme northeastern Peru east of the Rio Napo, and east into Brazil north of the Amazon as far as the Rio Negro. The white-cheeked antbird primarily lives in humid lowland and foothill terra firme evergreen forest, as well as nearby mature secondary forest. It almost exclusively stays within the forest undergrowth. Its maximum elevation is 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Colombia, and 750 m (2,500 ft) in Ecuador and Peru.
