All species › Passerines › Royal flycatchers and allies › Black-tailed Myiobius
Black-tailed Myiobius | Myiobius atricaudus
Zwartstaarttiran | Mosquerito colinegro | Assanhadinho-de-cauda-preta
The Black-tailed Myiobius is a small Myiobius with a yellow rump, a black tail and a buff breast. West of the Andes it lives in humid and semi-humid forest, in Amazonia mainly in flooded forest and forest along streams. Like its relatives it forages with a fanned tail and drooped wings.
Voice
Sharp, short calls such as psit or tseek, often repeated while foraging.
Recording: Rodrigo Dela Rosa de Souza — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13 cm, with a broad, flat bill with bristles. The upperparts are olive-green to olive-brown, the rump bright yellow and the tail black. The throat is paler; the breast and flanks are uniform buff to cinnamon, the belly pale yellow. The male has a small concealed yellow crown patch.
Confusion species
Whiskered Myiobius Myiobius barbatus is very similar, but has a more olive, less uniform breast and in the male a larger crown patch; it lives mainly in terra firme forest. Tawny-breasted Myiobius Myiobius villosus is larger and darker and lives higher in the foothills. Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher Terenotriccus erythrurus has a rufous tail and no yellow rump.
Habitat
The understorey of humid and semi-humid forest, forest edges and older secondary forest, in Amazonia mainly várzea, riverine forest and forest along streams, from the lowlands to about 900 m, locally higher in the west. It catches small insects in short sallies, often in mixed flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: in the Pacific lowlands, the north and the middle Magdalena Valley, and very locally in Amazonia. Ecuador: in the west, from Esmeraldas to El Oro and Loja, and locally in the eastern lowlands. Peru: in Tumbes and locally in the lowlands east of the Andes, mainly in San Martín and Loreto. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Costa Rica and Panama, southern Venezuela and Brazil, both in Amazonia and in the Atlantic Forest.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
West of the Andes, search humid forest in Manabí, Guayas and El Oro, or in Tumbes, and follow mixed flocks in the understorey; watch for the yellow rump and buff breast.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Much of its forest west of the Andes has gone, but the species also occurs in forest remnants and older secondary forest.
Scientific name
Myiobius atricaudus | Lawrence, 1863
Lawrence described the species in 1863 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Myiobius was introduced in 1839 by Gray. The genus name comes from Greek muia, 'fly', and bios, 'life', meaning 'living on flies'. The species name comes from Latin ater, 'black', and cauda, 'tail'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Lion Hill, Panama.