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Eastern Olivaceous Flatbill | Rhynchocyclus olivaceus
Oostelijke groene breedbektiran | Picoplano oliváceo oriental | Bico-chato-grande
The Eastern Olivaceous Flatbill is an olive-green tyrant with a very broad, flat bill which, after the split of the former Olivaceous Flatbill, covers the eastern part of the range: the Guiana Shield and lowland Brazil. In the guide area it reaches only the far east of Colombia. It sits still for long periods in the middle storey of lowland forest.
Voice
A sharp, rising tseep and a short, thin series of high notes.
Recording: rudy gelis — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
15 cm, with a very broad, flat bill: upper mandible black, lower mandible pale. Upperparts olive-green, with a narrow pale eye-ring. Wings dark, the coverts and flight feathers with distinct yellowish edges. Throat and breast olive with faint yellow streaks, belly pale yellow. Sexes alike.
Confusion species
Western Olivaceous Flatbill Rhynchocyclus aequinoctialis is practically identical in the field and is separated mainly by range and voice; it is the species of the Amazon lowlands of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Fulvous-breasted Flatbill Rhynchocyclus fulvipectus has a tawny throat and breast and lives in the foothills. Yellow-olive Flatbill Tolmomyias sulphurescens and its relatives are smaller and slimmer, with a narrower bill and a more active foraging style.
Habitat
The middle storey and understorey of humid terra firme lowland forest, also white-sand forest and forest along rivers, up to about 500 m. It catches large insects in a short sally from the perch to the underside of leaves. The nest is a hanging, pear-shaped bag with an entrance at the bottom.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: only in the far east, in the lowlands of the Guiana Shield. Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia: absent; the olivaceous flatbills of the Amazon lowlands there belong to Western Olivaceous Flatbill. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in southern Venezuela, the Guianas and much of Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the guide area to be expected only in lowland forest in eastern Colombia; watch for a motionless olive-green bird with a broad bill and yellow wing edgings, often in mixed flocks in the middle storey.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Widespread on the Guiana Shield and in Brazil; in the guide area only at the edge of its range.
Scientific name
Rhynchocyclus olivaceus | (Temminck, 1820)
Temminck described the species in 1820 as Platyrhynchos olivaceus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Rhynchocyclus was introduced in 1860 by Cabanis & Heine. The genus name is an anagram of the earlier name Cyclorhynchus, from Greek kuklos, 'circle, shield', and rhunkhos, 'bill'. The species name comes from Latin olivaceus, 'olive-green'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.