Golden-crowned Spadebill (Platyrinchus coronatus) — Vorstman's Guide to the Birds of the Andes and West Coast

Voice

A high, thin, buzzy trill that rises slightly and falls again, recalling an insect.

Listen: SongXC961483

Recording: Johan Chaves — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto

Identification

9 cm, with a large head, a very broad, flat bill and a short tail. The upperparts are olive-green. The crown is rufous and bordered black, with a golden-yellow central stripe that is smaller in the female. The face is yellowish olive, with a yellow eye-ring and black marks behind the eye and on the ear-coverts. The underparts are pale yellow, with an olive wash on the breast.

Confusion species

White-crested Spadebill Platyrinchus platyrhynchos is larger, with a grey head, a white crown patch and ochre underparts. Cinnamon-crested Spadebill Platyrinchus saturatus is darker, with a plainer face and a white throat. White-throated Spadebill Platyrinchus mystaceus has a white throat and lives higher, in montane forest.

Habitat

The lower storey of humid terra firme forest in the lowlands and foothills, also older secondary forest, up to about 1000 m. It sits still on thin twigs and suddenly flies up to snatch insects from the undersides of leaves. The nest is a small cup in the fork of a shrub, low above the ground.

Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.

Range and movements

In Colombia in the Pacific lowlands, in the north and in Amazonia. In Ecuador in the north-west and throughout the eastern lowlands. In Peru in the eastern lowlands. In Bolivia in the north and north-west of the lowlands. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area from Honduras to Panama, in Venezuela, the Guianas and Amazonian Brazil.

Resident
dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Density map from the occurrence records of GBIF (2006-10-01 – 2026-09-30), counted per 1.41° grid cell and per month and divided by all bird records in that same cell — so the number of birdwatchers does not shape the picture. Colour depth follows that share and fades out gradually, so the map does not follow national borders. Country outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).

How and when to look

Listen in the lower storey of tall forest for the high trill, then search at eye level for a small, still bird with a large head; it often stays on one twig for a long time. Forest trails at Yasuní, Tambopata and Manu are suitable places.

Conservation status

Least Concern. The species has a very large range, but usually disappears from heavily fragmented forest.

Scientific name

Platyrinchus coronatus | Sclater, 1858

Sclater described the species in 1858 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Platyrinchus was introduced in 1805 by Desmarest, A-G. The genus name comes from Greek platus, 'flat', and rhunkhos, 'bill'. Latin coronatus means 'crowned', referring to the golden crown stripe. The specimen the first description was based on came from Río Napo, Ecuador.