All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Rusty-fronted Tody-Flycatcher
Rusty-fronted Tody-Flycatcher | Poecilotriccus latirostris
Roodteugelschoffelsnavel | Titirijí frentirrojo | Ferreirinho-de-cara-parda
The Rusty-fronted Tody-Flycatcher is a small tyrant of dense shrubs and thickets in the Amazonian lowlands, with a rusty forehead and face. It is widespread in the guide area east of the Andes, but keeps hidden in dense vegetation.
Voice
A short, dry rattle, often introduced by a sharp tik, as in tik, trrrrr; also single tik calls.
Recording: Daan van der Hoeven — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
9.5 cm, with a flat, broad bill. The forehead, lores and face are rusty ochre-brown, the crown grey to olive-grey. The back is olive. The wings are blackish with two buff wing bars and yellowish edgings. The throat is whitish, the breast greyish, the belly whitish to pale yellow. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Ochre-faced Tody-Flycatcher Poecilotriccus plumbeiceps has a similar ochre face but lives in montane forest in south-eastern Peru and Bolivia. Common Tody-Flycatcher Todirostrum cinereum has yellow underparts and a dark head. Pygmy tyrants of the genus Lophotriccus have a crest and a streaked breast.
Habitat
Dense thickets and scrub at forest edges, in overgrown clearings, in cane grass along rivers and on river islands, also in gardens with shrubs; mainly below 1000 m. It forages low in the vegetation for insects with short sallies to the undersides of leaves.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: the east, from Meta southward. Ecuador: the Amazonian lowlands. Peru: throughout the Amazonian lowlands. Bolivia: the lowlands of the north and east. Absent from the Galápagos and west of the Andes. Outside the guide area in Amazonian and central Brazil and Paraguay.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen in dense shrubs along riverbanks, on river islands and at the edges of lowland villages for the short, dry rattle; waiting patiently at a forest edge often brings the bird into view.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species is common in secondary vegetation and has a large range.
Scientific name
Poecilotriccus latirostris | (Pelzeln, 1868)
Pelzeln described the species in 1868 as Euscarthmus latirostris; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Poecilotriccus was introduced in 1884 by Berlepsch. The genus name comes from Greek poikilos, 'variegated, pied', and trikkos, a small unidentified bird, used in ornithology for tyrant flycatchers. The species name comes from Latin latus, 'broad', and rostrum, 'bill'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Borba, Amazonas, Brazil.