All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Cinereous Tyrant
Cinereous Tyrant | Knipolegus striaticeps
Grauwe moortiran | Viudita chaqueña | Maria-preta-acinzentada
The Cinereous Tyrant is a small, grey black tyrant of the Chaco dry forest. In the guide area it occurs only in south-eastern Bolivia, at the edge of its range. The male stands out by its red iris and the white patch in the wing in flight.
Voice
A soft, short tik; in display the male makes a short upward flight with a dry, clicking wing sound.
Recording: Marcelo da Rocha — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13 cm, with a short bill. The male is slate-grey, slightly darker on the back, with blackish wings and tail, a white band at the base of the primaries that is visible mainly in flight, and a red iris. The female is greyish brown above with a finely streaked rufous-brown crown, pale wing bars and whitish, finely streaked underparts. Young birds resemble the female.
Confusion species
White-winged Black Tyrant Knipolegus aterrimus is larger; the male is black rather than grey, and it lives higher, in the dry Andean valleys. The male Hudson's Black Tyrant Knipolegus hudsoni is black with a white flank spot, and occurs only in the austral winter. The female Rufous-tailed Tyrant Knipolegus poecilurus has much rufous in the tail and lives in montane forest.
Habitat
Chaco dry forest, thorn scrub and open woodland with shrubs in the lowlands and low foothills, up to about 1500 m, locally in the lowest parts of the dry valleys. It perches low to mid-height in shrubs and catches insects with short sallies, also to the ground. The nest is a small cup in a shrub.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Bolivia: in the south-east, in the Chaco of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Paraguay, northern Argentina and very locally in south-western Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search the Chaco of south-eastern Bolivia, for example around Villamontes or Boyuibe; look for a small grey flycatcher with a red iris low in the thorn scrub.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The Chaco forest is being cleared on a large scale for agriculture and ranching, which affects the species locally.
Scientific name
Knipolegus striaticeps | (d'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye, 1837)
D'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye described the species in 1837 as M[uscisaxicola] striaticeps; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Knipolegus was introduced in 1826 by Boie. The genus name comes from Greek knips, 'insect', and legō, 'to pick', for its way of foraging. The species name comes from Latin striatus, 'striped', and -ceps, 'headed'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Chiquitos, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.