All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Small-billed Elaenia
Small-billed Elaenia | Elaenia parvirostris
Kortsnavelelenia | Fiofío piquicorto | Guaracava-de-bico-curto
The Small-billed Elaenia is a small elaenia that breeds in southern South America and moves in large numbers to the Amazon Basin and further north in the austral winter. It is one of the most numerous austral migrants among the tyrant flycatchers. In the guide area it breeds in Bolivia.
Voice
A clear, whistled peeuw and soft weet calls; the dawn song is a repeated pi-chew.
Recording: Pedro Rinaldi — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14.5 cm, with a round head, a small bill and hardly any crest. The upperparts are olive-grey, with a distinct, complete white eye-ring and a white crown patch that is usually partly visible. The wings are dark with two or three white wing bars. The underparts are greyish white, with a grey breast and sometimes a faint yellow wash on the lower belly. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
White-crested Elaenia Elaenia albiceps is very similar but has a less distinct eye-ring and a broader white crown stripe; it lives in the Andes and along the coast. Lesser Elaenia Elaenia chiriquensis has a yellower belly and a less distinct eye-ring. Large Elaenia Elaenia spectabilis is larger, with a yellow belly and a dark breast. Slaty Elaenia Elaenia strepera is grey without white wing bars.
Habitat
Breeds in dry woodland, forest edges, scrub and semi-open country with trees in the lowlands and on lower slopes. In winter in forest edges, secondary forest, riverside scrub, river islands and the canopy of lowland forest, often at fruiting trees. It eats fruit and insects.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Bolivia: breeds in the south and east (including Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, Tarija); in winter widespread in the lowlands. Peru, Ecuador and Colombia: winter visitor in the eastern lowlands, locally also in the foothills. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area it breeds in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and southern Brazil; winters north to Venezuela and the Guianas.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In the austral winter (May–September) search forest edges and fruiting trees in the Amazonian lowlands; in the breeding season scrub and dry woodland in eastern Bolivia. Note the complete white eye-ring.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Common and tolerates altered, semi-open landscapes.
Scientific name
Elaenia parvirostris | Pelzeln, 1868
Pelzeln described the species in 1868 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Elaenia was introduced in 1836 by Sundevall. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek elaineos, 'of olive oil' or 'oleaginous'. From Latin parvus, 'small', and rostrum, 'bill': 'small-billed'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.