ABSTRACT
Antpittas are small- to medium-sized ground-dwelling insectivores characterized by long legs and small rounded tails. Antpittas are often monochromatic, although some species exhibit sex-related plumage differences where males have brighter and more colorful crowns. However, Ryder and Wolfe and Dickey and Van Rossem suggest that antpittas adhere to a Complex Basic Strategy where preformative molts are often partial, resulting in molt limits among the median and greater coverts. This appears consistent with at least two of the species covered here. Definitive prebasic molts consistently appear complete. Skull ossification appears to be useful for aging where complete ossification probably occurs during the formative plumage. For the few species where information is available, it appears that males and females exhibit brood patches because both sexes typically incubate eggs, similar to the closely related Thamnophilidae.
