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Peruvian Tyrannulet | Zimmerius viridiflavus
Geelwangvliegenpikker | Mosquerito peruano | Poiaeiro-peruano
The Peruvian Tyrannulet occurs only on the east slope of the Andes in central Peru. It resembles Golden-faced Tyrannulet, but has a yellower face and much yellower underparts. For a long time it was treated as a subspecies of that bird.
Voice
Clear, slightly descending whistles and short series of higher notes, similar to those of Golden-faced Tyrannulet.
Recording: Jerome Fischer — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
11 cm, with a short, dark bill and a rather long tail. The face, lores and eyebrow are yellow, the crown and upperparts olive-green. The wing feathers have yellow edges, without true wing bars. The iris is dark. The throat is pale yellow, the breast and belly bright yellow, with an olive wash on the breast. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Golden-faced Tyrannulet Zimmerius chrysops of northern Peru is greyish white below, with at most a yellow wash. Bolivian Tyrannulet Zimmerius bolivianus, further south, lacks the yellow face and has a pale iris. Red-billed Tyrannulet Zimmerius cinereicapilla lives lower and has a grey crown and a reddish lower mandible.
Habitat
The canopy and edges of humid montane forest, secondary forest and semi-open country with trees, roughly between 1000 and 2500 m. It eats small insects and many berries, especially of mistletoes, alone, in pairs or in mixed flocks. The nest has been little described.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Peru: on the east slope of the Andes in the centre of the country, roughly from Huánuco to Junín. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search along roads through montane forest in Huánuco, Pasco and Junín, for example in the Chanchamayo valley, in forest edges and trees with mistletoes, and listen for the clear whistles.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species also occurs in secondary forest and semi-open country.
Scientific name
Zimmerius viridiflavus | (Tschudi, 1844)
Tschudi described the species in 1844 as E[laenia] viridiflava; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Zimmerius was introduced in 1977 by Traylor. The genus name honours the American ornithologist John Todd Zimmer (1889–1957), who did much work on the classification of Neotropical birds. The specific name comes from Latin viridis, 'green', and flavus, 'yellow': 'green and yellow'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Tulumayo, Junín, Peru.