All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Sooty-headed Tyrannulet
Sooty-headed Tyrannulet | Phyllomyias griseiceps
Dwergvliegenpikker | Mosquerito cabecigrís | Piolhinho-de-cabeça-cinza
The Sooty-headed Tyrannulet is one of the smallest tyrant flycatchers in the guide area: a compact, olive and yellow bird with a dark crown that lives high in the trees along forest edges and clearings. It usually draws attention first by its clear, rhythmic whistle. The species ranges from Panama to Amazonia.
Voice
A clear, rhythmic series of whistles, whip, whip-dee-dew, often repeated from a tall tree.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
10 cm, with a short, stubby, blackish bill. The crown is sooty grey, with a short whitish eyebrow above the lores and a dark eyestripe. The back is olive-green. The wings are dark with olive edges, without distinct wing bars. The throat is greyish white, the breast washed olive-yellow and the belly pale yellow. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet Tyrannulus elatus has a yellow crown patch, grey cheeks and two distinct wing bars. Slender-footed Tyrannulet Zimmerius gracilipes has yellow edges to the wing feathers and a pale iris. Southern Beardless Tyrannulet Camptostoma obsoletum has a small crest and pale wing bars. Plumbeous-crowned Tyrannulet Phyllomyias plumbeiceps has wing bars and a dark patch on the ear coverts, and lives higher in montane forest.
Habitat
The canopy and edges of humid forest, secondary forest, clearings with scattered tall trees, plantations and gardens, from the lowlands up to about 1200 m, locally higher. It gleans small insects from leaves in the upper levels and also eats berries. The nest is an open cup high in a tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Colombia: widespread in the lowlands and foothills, in the Magdalena and Cauca valleys, on the Pacific side and east of the Andes. Ecuador: in the west in the lowlands and foothills, and in the east along the base of the Andes. Peru: locally in the east, mainly in the foothills of San Martín, south to Junín and Madre de Dios. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Panama, Venezuela, the Guianas and northern Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
At forest edges, clearings and gardens with tall trees, listen for the rhythmic whistles and then scan the treetop. In western Ecuador and in the foothills of Colombia the species is fairly common.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species also occurs in secondary growth and semi-open country.
Scientific name
Phyllomyias griseiceps | (Sclater & Salvin, 1871)
Sclater & Salvin described the species in 1871 as Tyranniscus griseiceps; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Phyllomyias was introduced in 1860 by Cabanis & Heine. The genus name combines Greek phullon, 'leaf', with Modern Latin myias, 'flycatcher'. The species name comes from Medieval Latin griseus, 'grey', and -ceps, 'headed', so 'grey-headed'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Babahoyo, Los Ríos, Ecuador.