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Short-tailed Pygmy Tyrant | Myiornis ecaudatus
Kortstaartdwergtiran | Tirano enano colicorto | Caçula
The Short-tailed Pygmy Tyrant is one of the smallest passerines in the world and the most widespread pygmy tyrant of the Amazonian lowlands. With its almost absent tail and large head it looks more like a large insect than a bird as it darts among the leaves.
Voice
A high, insect-like 'krreek' or 'tseek', single or in series, and short, thin trills; often the first thing you notice of the bird.
Recording: Paul Lenrumé — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
6.5 cm, with a short, flat bill and a tail that barely projects beyond the wings. The crown and sides of the head are grey, with distinct white lores and eye-ring. The upperparts are bright olive-green, the wings dusky with yellow edges. The underparts are white, with pale yellow flanks and undertail coverts. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
White-bellied Pygmy Tyrant Myiornis albiventris has a more olive head, a slightly longer tail and a faintly streaked breast, and lives higher, in the foothills of Peru and Bolivia. Double-banded Pygmy Tyrant Lophotriccus vitiosus and Helmeted Pygmy Tyrant Lophotriccus galeatus are larger, with a longer tail, a crest and a streaked breast.
Habitat
Humid lowland forest on terra firme and in várzea, forest edges, tall secondary forest and plantations with trees, up to about 1000 m. It usually keeps to the middle and upper levels and catches small insects with quick sallies to leaves. The nest is a hanging globular nest with a side entrance.
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 lowlands east of the Andes. Ecuador: in the Amazonian lowlands and the lower foothills. Peru: throughout the Amazonian lowlands. Bolivia: in the north and centre of the lowlands. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil and on Trinidad.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen along forest edges and clearings in the Amazonian lowlands for the high, insect-like call; then search the middle level with binoculars, where the bird often sits still on a thin twig.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a very large range and also occurs in secondary forest.
Scientific name
Myiornis ecaudatus | (d'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye, 1837)
D'Orbigny, ACVMD & de Lafresnaye described the species in 1837 as T[odirostrum] ecaudatum; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Myiornis was introduced in 1901 by Bertoni. The genus name comes from Greek muia, 'fly', and ornis, 'bird'. The species name comes from Latin ecaudatus, 'tailless', after the very short tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from Yuracarés, Bolivia.