All species › Passerines › Shrike-babblers, Erpornis and vireos › Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo
Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo | Vireolanius leucotis
Grijskapklauwiervireo | Vireón coroniplomizo | Assobiador-do-castanhal
The Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo is a stocky green and yellow vireo with a grey head and a pale eye, living high in the canopy of foothill and lower montane forest. It is heard more often than seen and travels with mixed flocks of tanagers and other canopy birds.
Voice
A monotonously repeated whistled note, such as chew or tew, given at short intervals for long periods from the canopy.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14 cm, with a large head, a heavy, hooked bill and a short tail. The head is slate-grey, with a yellow supercilium, a yellow spot below the eye and a white stripe across the cheek. The eye is pale grey to whitish. The back, wings and tail are olive-green. The throat and breast are yellow, the flanks olive-green. The sexes are nearly alike.
Confusion species
Yellow-browed Shrike-Vireo Vireolanius eximius of northern Colombia has a blue crown and a dark eye and lacks the white cheek stripe. Rufous-browed Peppershrike Cyclarhis gujanensis has an equally heavy bill, but a rufous supercilium and an orange eye. Vireos of the genus Vireo are slimmer, with a thinner bill and no yellow on the head.
Habitat
Canopy and upper levels of humid foothill and lower montane forest and tall secondary forest, roughly between 400 and 1800 m, locally lower. With slow movements it searches the foliage for insects and caterpillars, often in mixed flocks. Little is known about the nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: on the Pacific slope of the Western Andes and the eastern slope of the Eastern Andes. Ecuador: on both slopes of the Andes. Peru: along the eastern slope of the Andes. Bolivia: on the eastern slope in the Yungas, south to Cochabamba. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in southern Venezuela, the Guianas and northern Brazil, mainly in the tepui region.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Along roads through foothill forest on the eastern slope or in western Ecuador, listen for the monotonous whistle and wait for a mixed flock to pass; the bird often sits still for a long time in the high foliage.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated in its current circumscription. Widespread along both Andean slopes, but sensitive to clearance of foothill forest.
Scientific name
Vireolanius leucotis | (Swainson, 1838)
Swainson described the species in 1838 as Malaconotus leucotis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Vireolanius was introduced in 1850 by Bonaparte. The genus name combines the genus names Vireo (Latin vireo, 'green bird') and Lanius (Latin lanius, 'butcher', for shrikes): a vireo resembling a shrike. The species name comes from Greek leukos, 'white', and ous (genitive ōtos), 'ear': 'white-eared'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.