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Grey-bellied Shrike-Tyrant | Agriornis micropterus
Grijsbuikklauwiertiran | Gaucho gris | Gaúcho-de-barriga-cinza
The Grey-bellied Shrike-Tyrant is a large, plain grey-brown shrike-tyrant of dry, open mountain country in the south of the guide area. A resident form lives in the Andes; the southern birds from Patagonia move north in the austral winter. It perches upright on shrubs and rocks and hunts large insects on the ground.
Voice
Usually silent; gives a soft whistle and in the breeding season repeated whistled calls at dawn and dusk.
Recording: Bernabe Lopez-Lanus — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
24–25 cm, with a heavy, hooked bill; the upper mandible is blackish, the lower mandible largely pale. The upperparts are greyish brown, the throat whitish with fine, faint dark streaks. The breast and belly are pale greyish brown, with a buff tinge towards the rear; the undertail coverts are pale cinnamon. The tail is dark, only the outermost feather having a narrow whitish outer web. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant Agriornis montanus has an all-black bill, a more heavily streaked throat and much white in the tail. White-tailed Shrike-Tyrant Agriornis albicauda is larger, with a densely streaked throat and a white tail. Lesser Shrike-Tyrant Agriornis murinus is much smaller, with a smaller bill and a white supercilium. Grey Monjita Nengetus cinereus is greyer, with a short, straight bill and a white wing patch in flight.
Habitat
Dry puna and altiplano with shrubs, rocky slopes and gorges, and dry mountain valleys with scrub, mostly between 2500 and 4300 m; migrants from the south also in dry scrub and open country in the lowlands during the austral winter. It hunts large insects and small vertebrates on the ground from a lookout. The nest is low in a thorny shrub or among rocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Peru: scarce and local in the Andes of the far south. Bolivia: in the Andes and on the altiplano of the west and south; in the austral winter migrants from the south are also reported in the lowlands of the south-east. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in northern Chile and in Argentina, where the southern birds breed in Patagonia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search the altiplano and dry, shrubby mountain valleys in southern Bolivia; look for a large grey-brown flycatcher with a heavy bill and a tail without obvious white.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is widespread but occurs at low densities in the guide area.
Scientific name
Agriornis micropterus | Gould, 1839
Gould described the species in 1839 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. He introduced the genus Agriornis in that same work. The genus name comes from Greek agrios, 'wild, fierce', and ornis, 'bird'. The species name comes from Greek mikros, 'small', and pteron, 'wing'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz, Argentina.