All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Golden-faced Tyrannulet
Golden-faced Tyrannulet | Zimmerius chrysops
Goudmaskervliegenpikker | Mosquerito caridorado | Poiaeiro-de-cara-dourada
The Golden-faced Tyrannulet is one of the most widespread small tyrant flycatchers of forest edges in the northern Andes. It has a yellow face and yellow-edged wing feathers and often perches with its tail slightly cocked in the crowns of trees. Its clear whistles belong to forest edges and gardens with trees, from the lowlands up into montane forest.
Voice
A clear, slightly descending whistle, like tcheew, often repeated, and short series of faster, higher notes.
Recording: José María Loaiza B. — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11 cm, with a short, dark bill and a rather long tail. The lores, eyebrow and front of the face are yellow, the crown and upperparts olive-green. The wing feathers have distinct yellow edges, without true wing bars. The iris is dark. The throat and breast are greyish white, the belly white to pale yellow. Birds in south-western Ecuador and north-western Peru are somewhat greyer, with less yellow on the face. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Peruvian Tyrannulet Zimmerius viridiflavus of central Peru is much yellower below. Venezuelan Tyrannulet Zimmerius improbus in northern Colombia is very similar and is told mainly by voice and range. Red-billed Tyrannulet Zimmerius cinereicapilla has a grey crown, a pale iris and a reddish lower mandible. Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet Tyrannulus elatus has a yellow crown stripe, grey cheeks and wing bars. Southern Beardless Tyrannulet Camptostoma obsoletum has a small crest and pale wing bars.
Habitat
The canopy and edges of humid forest, secondary forest, semi-open country with trees, coffee plantations and gardens, from the lowlands up to about 2500 m; in south-western Ecuador and north-western Peru also in semi-humid and dry forest. It eats small insects and many berries, especially of mistletoes, and often joins mixed flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: in the three Andean ranges and their outliers. Ecuador: on both slopes of the Andes and in the western lowlands. Peru: in the north-west, from Tumbes to Cajamarca, and on the east slope in the north. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Venezuela.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Walk along forest edges and gardens with trees at middle elevations, for example around Mindo in Ecuador, and listen for the clear whistle; the bird often perches in the open in the treetops and feeds on mistletoe berries.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is common in secondary forest, plantations and gardens and tolerates disturbance well.
Scientific name
Zimmerius chrysops | (Sclater, 1859)
Sclater described the species in 1859 as Tyrannulus chrysops; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Zimmerius was introduced in 1977 by Traylor. The genus name honours the American ornithologist John Todd Zimmer (1889–1957), who did much work on the classification of Neotropical birds. The specific name comes from Greek khrysos, 'gold', and ōps, 'face': 'golden-faced'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Zamora, Zamora-Chinchipe, Ecuador.