Mayan Antthrush

The Mayan antthrush is 15 to 19 cm (5.9 to 7.5 in) long and weighs about 56 to 64 g (2.0 to 2.3 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a dusky brown crown. They have a small white spot on their lores and bare bluish skin around their eye. Their face from their bill to their eye is black that extends down to include the chin and throat. The sides of their neck are rufous that continues across under the black throat. Their nape, back, rump, and uppertail coverts are brown with a rufescent tinge on the last. Their flight feathers are brown with dusky inner edges and a wide cinnamon band at the base. Their tail is blackish brown. Their upper breast and most of the rest of their underparts are uniform gray. Their flanks have a brown wash and their undertail coverts are dull brownish. They have a dark brown iris, a black bill, and gray to bluish legs and feet. Subspecies F. m. pallidus is much paler than the nominate though darker than pallidus; its breast is light gray and its mantle is light olive brown. F. m. intermedius is also paler than the nominate, with a mouse gray breast and an umber mantle.

The nominate subspecies of the Mayan antthrush is found on the Caribbean slope in the southeastern Mexican states of Veracruz, Oaxaca, Tabasco, and Chiapas. Subspecies F. m. pallidus is found from the Yucatan Peninsula into northern Guatemala. F. m. intermedius is found on the Caribbean slope from Belize and eastern Guatemala to central Honduras. The species primarily inhabits humid evergreen, semi-deciduous, and deciduous forest. It also occurs in coffee plantations and mature secondary forest. In elevation it ranges from sea level to about 1,800 m (5,900 ft).

The Mayan antthrush feeds primarily on a variety of arthropods. It is almost entirely terrestrial. It walks slowly and deliberately with its tail cocked like a little rail.