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Masked Yellowthroat | Geothlypis aequinoctialis
Zuid-Amerikaanse maskerzanger | Mascarita equinoccial | Pia-cobra-do-norte
The Masked Yellowthroat is a yellow warbler with a black mask, living in wet grassland, marshes and rank growth in northern South America. In the guide area it occurs only in Colombia, mainly in the open lowlands of the north and in the Llanos. In current treatment the southern and west-coast forms are split as separate species.
Voice
The song is a fast, clear, warbling series of whistled notes, often given from a prominent stem or shrub. The call is a sharp chip and a rasping rattle.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13.5–14 cm, with a fairly long, rounded tail and a stout bill. The male is olive-green above and bright yellow below, with a black mask from forehead and lores across the eye to the ear coverts, bordered above by a grey band across the crown. The female has no mask, but an olive head with a yellowish eye-ring and lores and yellow underparts. Young birds resemble the female.
Confusion species
Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas, a winter visitor from North America, is smaller, with a white or whitish border above the mask, a yellow throat and a whitish belly with brownish flanks. Olive-crowned Yellowthroat Geothlypis semiflava has a larger mask without a grey border and an olive crown; it lives mainly west of the Andes. Female Mourning Warblers Geothlypis philadelphia have a greyish hood.
Habitat
Wet grassland, marshes, rank growth along ditches and rivers, rice fields and humid savanna with tall grass and shrubs, mostly below 1000 m. It forages low in the vegetation for insects and spiders. The nest is an open cup, low in dense herbs or grass.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the open lowlands of the north, notably the Caribbean region, and in the Llanos east of the Andes, locally also in the valleys of the large rivers. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Venezuela, Trinidad, the Guianas and northern Brazil, including along the Amazon.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search wet grassland and ditch edges in the Llanos or the Caribbean lowlands; in the morning singing males often perch in the open on a stem. A sharp chip from the tall grass also gives away females.
Conservation status
Not evaluated in this circumscription. The Red List treats the yellowthroats of South America as a single species, rated Least Concern. The species tolerates farmland with wet patches well.
Scientific name
Geothlypis aequinoctialis | (Gmelin, 1789)
Gmelin described the species in 1789 as Motacilla aequinoctialis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Geothlypis was introduced in 1847 by Cabanis. The genus name combines Greek geō-, 'ground-, earth-', with thlupis, an unidentified small bird. The species name comes from Latin aequinoctialis, 'of the equinox', that is, of the equatorial region. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.