About Habia rubica (Vieillot, 1817)
Red-crowned ant tanager (Habia rubica) measures 17–19 cm (6.7–7.5 in) in length. Adult males weigh 28–43 g (0.99–1.52 oz), while adult females weigh 23–37 g (0.81–1.31 oz). The adult male of the nominate subspecies has dull reddish brown plumage, with a brighter red throat and breast. It has a black-bordered scarlet crown stripe that raises when the bird is excited. Females have yellowish brown plumage, with a yellow throat and yellow-buff crown stripe. This species is shy but noisy, with a call that is a rattle followed by a musical pee-pee-pee. It is a resident breeding species found from Mexico south to Paraguay and northern Argentina, and also occurs on Trinidad. It is common across its large range and is not classified as threatened by the IUCN. It prefers the middle layer of forest, as well as undergrowth with abundant ferns, shrubs, and herbs. Red-crowned ant tanagers occur in pairs or family groups. They feed mainly on arthropods, and also eat berries. In Central America and Trinidad, they frequently follow army ant columns. In the lowland forests of southeastern Brazil, they may act as a nuclear species of understory mixed-species feeding flocks; at higher elevations such as in the Serra de Paranapiacaba, they only join these flocks rarely, and prefer to follow ants on their own. They also follow feeding South American coatis (Nasua nasua), particularly during the dry season. In both cases, the tanagers are commensal, catching invertebrate prey that have been disturbed by the ants or coatis.
