Tityras, becards and allies | Tityridae

Bekardes en tityra's | Titiras y cabezones

These are heavily built birds of the canopy along woodland edges, with a large head, a short, broad bill with a small hook at the tip, and a quiet, upright posture. They sit still for long spells, then make a short sally to snatch an insect from a leaf or twig and return; a good deal of fruit is taken too, plucked from the branch while hanging or in flight. The vocal apparatus is more simply built than in most songbirds: the sounds are not learned but innate, and consist of thin, high whistles, nasal complaining notes and a growling burr, without real song. The nest catches the eye sooner than the bird does: a bulky, globular ball of grass, rootlets and plant fibre, sometimes half a metre long, hanging from the tip of a slender branch over a clearing or over water, with the entrance low on one side. Another part of the family nests instead in a tree cavity, which is stuffed with dry leaves and is sometimes taken from its rightful occupants. Male and female differ in colour.