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Lesser Kiskadee | Philohydor lictor
Kleine kiskadie | Bienteveo menor | Bentevizinho-do-brejo
The Lesser Kiskadee looks like a scaled-down Great Kiskadee with a long, thin bill. It is closely tied to water and nearly always perches low over the water of oxbow lakes, marshes and slow streams. Pairs hold a fixed territory along the shore.
Voice
A buzzy, rasping dzreeeu and a two-part dzwee-bee, often given as a duet by the pair.
Recording: Dante Buzzetti — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
16–18 cm, with a long, narrow, black bill. The head is black with a white supercilium reaching the nape and a concealed yellow crown patch. The upperparts are brown, with narrow rufous edges to the wings and tail. The throat is white, the rest of the underparts bright yellow. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus is much larger and heavier, with a thicker bill and more obviously rufous wings, and occurs in all kinds of open habitats. Boat-billed Flycatcher Megarynchus pitangua is larger, with a very broad bill, and perches higher in trees. Rusty-margined Flycatcher Myiozetetes cayanensis and Social Flycatcher Myiozetetes similis have a short bill and often perch higher.
Habitat
Shores of oxbow lakes, marshes, slow rivers and streams, flooded forest and floating vegetation, in the lowlands, locally to about 1000 m. It catches insects in short sallies from a low branch over the water, sometimes from the water surface. The nest is an open cup in a shrub or small tree over the water.
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 Caribbean lowlands, the Magdalena Valley and the lowlands east of the Andes. Ecuador: in the lowlands east of the Andes. Peru: in the lowlands east of the Andes. Bolivia: in the lowlands of the north and east. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Panama, Venezuela, the Guianas and Amazonian Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Boat or walk along the shores of oxbow lakes and look for small kiskadee-like birds perching on twigs low over the water.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is widespread in lowland wetlands.
Scientific name
Philohydor lictor | (Lichtenstein, 1823) (GBIF: Pitangus lictor)
Lichtenstein described the species in 1823 as L[anius] Lictor; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Philohydor was introduced in 1984 by Lanyon. The genus name comes from Greek philos, 'loving', and hudōr, 'water'. Latin lictor is the bodyguard of a Roman magistrate who carried out sentences. The specimen the first description was based on came from Belém, Pará, Brazil.