All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Grey-and-white Tyrannulet
Grey-and-white Tyrannulet | Pseudelaenia leucospodia
Grijs-witte elenia | Tiranolete grisiblanco | Poiaeiro-cinza-e-branco
The Grey-and-white Tyrannulet is a small, greyish-brown tyrant of dry scrub on the coastal plain of south-western Ecuador and north-western Peru. It is the only species in the genus Pseudelaenia and does not occur outside this region. When excited it raises a bushy crest, revealing a white patch.
Voice
A dry, sharp chip and a short series of scratchy, somewhat stuttering notes, often given by two birds together.
Recording: Paul Coopmans — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
12.5 cm, with a thin, black bill and a bushy crest with a white central patch that usually stays concealed. The upperparts are greyish brown, with pale lores and an indistinct pale supercilium. The wings are dark brown, with faint pale wing bars and edges. The underparts are dull white, with a greyish wash on the breast. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Southern Beardless Tyrannulet Camptostoma obsoletum is smaller, with a cocked tail, a yellowish belly and distinct wing bars. Mouse-colored Tyrannulet Nesotriccus murinus is browner and longer, with buffy wing bars and a more obvious supercilium. Pacific Elaenia Myiopagis subplacens is greener, with a yellow belly, and lives in more humid forest.
Habitat
Dry scrub, thorn scrub and semi-desert with scattered shrubs and algarrobo (Prosopis), mainly on the coastal plain, from sea level to a few hundred metres. It searches for insects among the twigs of shrubs and low trees. Little is known about the nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Ecuador: in the dry south-west, mainly on the Santa Elena peninsula, in Guayas and El Oro. Peru: on the coastal plain of the north-west, in Tumbes, Piura and Lambayeque, south to La Libertad. Absent from Colombia, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search dry thorn scrub with algarrobo on the coastal plain of Piura or Santa Elena in the early morning, when birds are most active and calling.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The dry forests and scrub of the coast are locally cleared for firewood and farming.
Scientific name
Pseudelaenia leucospodia | (Taczanowski, 1877)
Taczanowski described the species in 1877 as Elainea leucospodia; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Pseudelaenia was introduced in 1988 by Lanyon. The genus name comes from Greek pseudos, 'false', and the genus Elaenia: a 'false elaenia'. The species name comes from Greek leukos, 'white', and spodios, 'ash-grey'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Tumbes, Peru.