All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Golden-crowned Flycatcher
Golden-crowned Flycatcher | Myiodynastes chrysocephalus
Goudkruintiran | Mosquero coronidorado | Bem-te-vi-de-coroa-dourada
The Golden-crowned Flycatcher is a sturdy flycatcher of the montane forests along the Andes, which often perches high on a protruding branch and reveals itself with a loud, high call. It is tied to stream valleys and forest edges at middle elevations. The yellow crown patch is usually concealed.
Voice
A loud, high, somewhat sneezy kee-zeeyew or skweeew, often repeated for long periods from a high perch; also a rapid, shrill series when excited.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
20–21 cm. A robust flycatcher with a heavy black bill. Upperparts olive-green, the crown greyer with a concealed yellow crown patch. A blackish mask and a dark malar stripe are separated by a white cheek stripe; the supercilium is narrow and pale. The throat is pale buffy-yellow, the breast has an olive-grey band with faint streaking, the belly is bright yellow. Flight feathers and tail feathers are dark with rufous edges. Sexes alike.
Confusion species
Streaked Flycatcher Myiodynastes maculatus has a streaked back and heavily streaked, mainly white underparts. Boat-billed Flycatcher Megarynchus pitangua and Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus have a black crown, a white supercilium around the head and a white throat without a malar stripe. Social Flycatcher Myiozetetes similis and Grey-capped Flycatcher Myiozetetes granadensis are smaller, with a small bill and no malar stripe.
Habitat
Humid montane forest, cloud forest, forest edges, clearings with scattered trees and stream valleys in montane forest, mostly between 600 and 2200 m. It sallies from a perch for large insects and also eats fruit. It nests in a crevice in a rock face or bank, on a ledge or in a tree cavity.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: in all three Andean ranges and the Serranía de Perijá. Ecuador: on both slopes of the Andes. Peru: on the east slope of the Andes along its whole length, locally also in the north-west. Bolivia: on the east slope of the Andes, south to the department of Santa Cruz. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in eastern Panama and in the mountains of Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search along mountain roads through cloud forest and along stream valleys at middle elevations. It often sits for long periods on a high bare branch, calling repeatedly.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Fairly common over a large range along the Andes.
Scientific name
Myiodynastes chrysocephalus | (Tschudi, 1844)
Tschudi described the species in 1844 as Sc[aphorhynchus] chrysocephalus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Myiodynastes was introduced in 1857 by Bonaparte. The genus name comes from Greek muia, 'fly', and dunastēs, 'ruler'. The species name comes from Greek khrusos, 'gold', and kephalē, 'head'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Chanchamayo, Junín, Peru.