All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Golden-browed Chat-Tyrant
Golden-browed Chat-Tyrant | Silvicultrix pulchella
Goudbrauwtapuittiran | Pitajo de ceja dorada | Papa-moscas-de-sobrancelha-dourada
The Golden-browed Chat-Tyrant is a small chat-tyrant of the understorey of montane forest on the eastern slope of the Andes in Peru and Bolivia. The long, golden-yellow supercilium that runs back to the nape distinguishes it from related species. It keeps low and hidden and is often first noticed by its high call.
Voice
A high, thin, descending whistle, roughly tsiieu, sometimes in a short series, and a dry trill.
Recording: Niels Krabbe — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
12.5 cm, with a thin, black bill and an upright posture. The upperparts are dark olive-brown, the head darker. The long supercilium is golden yellow along its whole length. The wings have two rufous wing bars. The throat and breast are dark slaty grey, the belly olive to yellowish brown. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Crowned Chat-Tyrant Silvicultrix frontalis has a supercilium that turns white towards the rear, uniformly grey underparts and usually lives higher. Jelski's Chat-Tyrant Silvicultrix jelskii is paler grey below, has a white rear part to the supercilium and lives on the western side of the Andes. Yellow-bellied Chat-Tyrant Silvicultrix diadema has yellow underparts and lives further north. Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant Ochthoeca rufipectoralis has a white supercilium and a rufous breast band.
Habitat
The understorey and edges of humid, mossy montane forest and cloud forest, also bamboo thickets, roughly between 2200 and 3500 m. It lives alone or in pairs, perches low on twigs and makes short sallies after insects. The nest is a cup of moss against a bank or in a cavity.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Peru: along the eastern slope of the Andes, south of the Marañón, from Amazonas and San Martín southwards. Bolivia: in the Yungas of La Paz and Cochabamba. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search along forest trails and roads through the cloud forest of the eastern slope, such as the Manu road or the Yungas of La Paz; listen for the high whistle from the understorey.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The cloud forest of the eastern slope is still intact over large areas and partly protected.
Scientific name
Silvicultrix pulchella | (Sclater & Salvin, 1876) (GBIF: Ochthoeca pulchella)
Sclater & Salvin described the species in 1876 as Ochthoeca pulchella; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Silvicultrix was introduced in 1986 by Lanyon. The genus name is Latin silvicultrix, 'forest-dweller', from silva, 'forest', and cultrix, 'inhabitant'. The species name comes from Latin pulchellus, a diminutive of pulcher, a word for attractive appearance. The specimen the first description was based on came from Tilotilo, La Paz, Bolivia.