All species › Passerines › Shrike-babblers, Erpornis and vireos › Golden-fronted Greenlet
Golden-fronted Greenlet | Pachysylvia aurantiifrons
Goudvoorhoofdvireo | Verdillo luisucho | Vite-vite-de-testa-dourada
The Golden-fronted Greenlet is a small vireo of dry and semi-humid forest and forest edge in northern Colombia and Venezuela. The golden-yellow tint of the forehead and face gives it its name. It is a regular member of mixed flocks in gardens, plantations and groves.
Voice
A repeated, clear phrase of two or three notes, often given at length. Calls with a nasal, scolding note.
Recording: Pedro Luis Castillo — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11 cm, with a short, pale bill, dark eyes and a short tail. The forehead and front of the face are golden-yellow to ochre, the crown brownish olive. The back, wings and tail are olive-green. The underparts are yellow, with a buffy wash on the breast and flanks. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Scrub Greenlet Hylophilus flavipes in the same area has pale eyes, a longer, pinkish bill and more often stays low in scrub. Lesser Greenlet Pachysylvia decurtata lives west of the Andes and has a grey head with a white eye-ring and white underparts. Tennessee Warbler Leiothlypis peregrina has a pointed, dark bill and a pale supercilium.
Habitat
Dry and semi-humid forest, gallery forest, forest edges, scrub with trees, plantations and parks, up to about 1000 m, locally higher. It searches the foliage of the middle and upper levels for insects, often in mixed flocks. The nest is a small, hanging cup in the fork of a branch.
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 north, in the Caribbean lowlands, around the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, on the Guajira Peninsula, in the Magdalena Valley and in the llanos at the foot of the Eastern Andes. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in eastern Panama, Venezuela and Trinidad.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search the groves and gardens at the foot of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, for example around Minca or Santa Marta, for mixed flocks. Listen for the repeated, clear phrase.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species tolerates disturbed and semi-open land and is common in much of its range.
Scientific name
Pachysylvia aurantiifrons | (Lawrence, 1861) (GBIF: Hylophilus aurantiifrons)
Lawrence described the species in 1861 as Hylophilus aurantiifrons; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Pachysylvia was introduced in 1850 by Bonaparte. The genus name comes from Greek pakhus, 'large, stout', and Sylvia, the warbler genus. The species name comes from New Latin aurantius, 'orange', and Latin frons, 'forehead': 'orange-fronted'. The specimen the first description was based on came from along the Panama Railroad, Panama.