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Plain Inezia | Inezia inornata
Grijskopinezia | Piojito picudo | Alegrinho-do-chaco
The Plain Inezia is a small, greyish tyrant of dry forest and the Chaco, which after breeding partly moves north, as far as the Amazonian lowlands of Bolivia and Peru. There it then lives in shrubby growth along rivers. The plumage is plain, with white spectacles and two wing bars.
Voice
A fairly musical series of thin whistles, introduced by an emphatic first note.
Recording: Guilherme Melo — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
9.5 cm, with a thin black bill, sometimes with a paler base to the lower mandible. The crown is grey to olive-grey, the back and rump grey to olive-grey. The face is mostly whitish, with a thin white supercilium and eye-ring. The wings are dusky, with white edges and two whitish wing bars. The throat is whitish, the breast and belly dingy grey, with a pale yellow tinge on the lower belly and undertail coverts. The iris is dark brown. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Amazonian Inezia Inezia subflava is larger, bright yellow below, with a broader white supercilium, and almost always lives near water. River Tyrannulet Serpophaga hypoleuca shares the river-island scrub, but has no wing bars and a longer tail. White-crested Tyrannulet Serpophaga subcristata has a grey crown with a white crest patch and a black border. Southern Beardless Tyrannulet Camptostoma obsoletum has a ragged crest and often cocks its tail.
Habitat
In the breeding season deciduous and semi-deciduous woodland and the drier forest of the Chaco; outside the breeding season mainly young shrubby growth along rivers and other waters. From the lowlands to about 700 m. It searches for small insects among leaves and twigs in shrubs and low trees. The nest is a small cup in a shrub.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Bolivia: breeds from southern Beni southward, in Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija; outside the breeding season also farther north. Peru: rare winter visitor to Madre de Dios and Puno. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area breeding in northern Paraguay and north-western Argentina; outside the breeding season also in south-western Amazonian Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the breeding season search dry forest in the Chaco of Santa Cruz and Tarija; in the austral winter search shrubby growth on river islands in northern Bolivia and Madre de Dios.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is fairly widespread in its breeding range, but deforestation in the Chaco reduces its habitat.
Scientific name
Inezia inornata | (Salvadori, 1897)
Salvadori described the species in 1897 as Serphophaga inornata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Inezia was introduced in 1909 by Cherrie. The genus name honours Enriqueta Inez Cherrie (1898–1943), daughter of the American ornithologist George K. Cherrie, who described the genus in 1909; she was born in the region where he found these birds. The species name comes from Latin inornatus, 'unadorned, plain'. The specimen the first description was based on came from San Francisco, Tarija, Bolivia.