All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Slaty-capped Flycatcher
Slaty-capped Flycatcher | Leptopogon superciliaris
Grijskruinleptopogon | Mosquerito orejinegro | Cabeçudo-de-coroa-cinza
The Slaty-capped Flycatcher is the most widespread Leptopogon of Andean montane forest, a slender tyrant flycatcher with a slate-grey cap and a black crescent on the ear coverts. It perches upright in the middle storey, often lifts one wing and readily joins mixed flocks.
Voice
A sharp, explosive skeeuw, often followed by a short, chattering trill. The call is one of the regular sounds of mixed flocks in lower montane forest.
Recording: José María Loaiza B. — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm, with a thin bill. The cap is slate-grey. The face is whitish with grey speckling and a black crescent on the ear coverts. The back is olive-green, the wings dusky with two yellowish-ochre wing bars. The throat and breast are greyish olive, the belly pale yellow. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Sepia-capped Flycatcher Leptopogon amaurocephalus has a dark brown cap and lives lower, in lowland forest. Rufous-breasted Flycatcher Leptopogon rufipectus has a rufous throat and breast and lives higher. Inca Flycatcher Leptopogon taczanowskii has a duller, olive-grey cap and breast and lives higher, in Peru. Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant Pogonotriccus ophthalmicus is smaller, with a shorter bill and a similarly speckled face with a dark ear patch. Streak-necked Flycatcher Mionectes striaticollis also lifts a wing but has a streaked throat and breast and no ear patch.
Habitat
The middle and lower levels of humid foothill and lower montane forest, also forest edges and old secondary growth, roughly between 500 and 1900 m, locally up to 2300 m. It perches upright on a branch and catches insects with short sallies to leaves, often with mixed flocks. The nest is a hanging ball of moss and fibres, often under an overhanging bank, a rock or along a road cut.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: in all three Andean ranges, the Serranía de Perijá and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Ecuador: on both slopes of the Andes. Peru: on the east slope along the whole length of the country. Bolivia: in the Yungas of La Paz, Cochabamba and western Santa Cruz. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and on Trinidad.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Follow mixed flocks in foothill and lower montane forest at 800–1700 m and listen for the sharp skeeuw; the bird perches upright in the middle storey and regularly lifts one wing.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated in its current taxonomic circumscription. The species is widespread and locally common in montane forest and tolerates forest edges and old secondary growth.
Scientific name
Leptopogon superciliaris | Tschudi, 1844
Tschudi described the species in 1844 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Leptopogon was introduced in 1844 by Cabanis. The genus name comes from Greek leptos, 'fine, slender', and pōgōn, 'beard', for the fine bristles at the base of the bill. The species name comes from Latin supercilium, 'eyebrow', for the eyebrow stripe. The specimen the first description was based on came from Vitoc, Junín, Peru.