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Sibilant Sirystes | Sirystes sibilator
Grijsrugsirystestiran | Suirirí silbón | Gritador
The Sibilant Sirystes is a grey-and-black canopy flycatcher of eastern South America, with a black cap and a loud, whistled call. In the guide area, in the strict sense, it occurs only as a non-breeding visitor to Bolivia. Since the split of the former species, the birds of western Amazonia belong to White-rumped Sirystes and those of the Chocó to a species of their own.
Voice
The most frequent call is a loud, ringing wheer-pew, sometimes repeated in an excited series. Also a long, flat alarm whistle and a fast trill.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
18–18.5 cm, with a narrow, black bill. The crown is black with a slight crest, the face slate-grey. The upperparts are mottled grey with an olive tinge, without a large white rump patch. The wings are blackish with broad grey edges; the long, square-tipped tail is blackish. The throat and breast are grey, becoming greyish white on the belly. The sexes are alike; juveniles have a faint buffy wash.
Confusion species
White-rumped Sirystes Sirystes albocinereus has a large white rump, paler underparts and a different call. Black-capped Becard Pachyramphus marginatus is smaller and stockier, with a shorter tail and a thicker bill. Flycatchers of the genus Myiarchus have a yellow belly and rufous edges to the wings or tail.
Habitat
Canopy and edges of semi-deciduous and humid forest, gallery forest and wooded transitions to cerrado. It perches high on open branches, often in mixed flocks, and catches insects in flight or from the foliage. It breeds in tree cavities, outside the guide area.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru: not present in the strict sense; records from western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador refer to Choco Sirystes Sirystes albogriseus, those from Amazonian Peru to White-rumped Sirystes. Bolivia: only as a non-breeding visitor, probably mainly in the east. Absent from the Galápagos. Breeds outside the guide area in Brazil, eastern Paraguay and northeastern Argentina.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the guide area to be expected at most in the austral winter in forest in eastern Bolivia; check any sirystes there for the lack of a white rump and for the call.
Conservation status
Least Concern. In the guide area a rare visitor with few documented records.
Scientific name
Sirystes sibilator | (Vieillot, 1818)
Vieillot described the species in 1818 as Muscicapa sibilator; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Sirystes was introduced in 1860 by Cabanis & Heine. The genus name comes from Greek syristēs, 'piper', from syrizō, 'to play the pipes'. The species name is Latin sibilator, 'whistler', from sibilare, 'to whistle', after its whistled call. The specimen the first description was based on came from Paraguay.