GREAT ANTSHRIKE Taraba major
With his pied plumage and bright red eye the male Great Antshrike is a handsome bird! Commonest in the Chaco, they are skulking inhabitants of dry forest undergrowth and scrub. Their heavy bill is a vicious weapon and is used to mercilessly cull insect prey to feed their ever present appetite, sometimes dropping onto the ground some distance from cover to boldly forage in the open.
Click on the images to enlarge them.
FIGURE 1 - (FPAVE1407PH) Adult male lateral view, location unknown (Frank Fragano undated).
FIGURE 2 - (FPAVE1408PH) Same individual as (FPAVE1407PH)  frontal view (Frank Fragano undated).
FIGURE 3 - (FPAVE1409PH) Adult male, PN Tte Enciso, Departamento Boquerón (Paul Smith July 2006).
FIGURE 4 - (FPAVE1410PH) Same individual as (FPAVE1409PH) upperwing (Paul Smith July 2006).
FIGURE 5 - (FPAVE3905PH) Adult female, Chaco (Arne Lesterhuis 2010).
FIGURE 6 - (FPAVE1411PH) Adult female, PN Tte Enciso, Departamento Boquerón (Paul Smith July 2006).
FIGURE 7 - (FPAVE1412PH) Same individual as (FPAVE1411PH) upperwing (Paul Smith July 2006).
VIDEO - (FPAVE1413VI) Adult male, north of Tte Montanía, Departamento Boquerón (Paul Smith September 2010).
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Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Material on this page was provided by Paul Smith, Arne Lesterhuis and Frank Fragano and is used with their permission.
Taraba major
1 (FPAVE1414RE) "Machine-gun" alarm(?) call recorded PN Tte Enciso, Departamento Boquerón (Paul Smith October 2008).
Click the link to hear the call. Longer versions of this call can be downloaded from the Paraguay page of our partner website Xeno-Canto - the largest collection of freely downloadable Neotropical bird calls available online.