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Southern Yellowthroat | Geothlypis velata
Zuidelijke maskerzanger | Mascarita sureña | Pia-cobra
The Southern Yellowthroat is a yellow warbler with a black mask, living in marshes and wet grasslands of central and southern South America. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of Masked Yellowthroat. In the guide area it occurs only in the lowlands of Bolivia and south-eastern Peru.
Voice
The song is a fast, clear, warbling phrase of varied whistled notes, often given from a prominent stem. The call is a fast, dry chatter, besides a sharp chip.
Recording: Fabrício Grigolin — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
13.5–14 cm, with a fairly long, rounded tail and a stout, dark bill. The male is olive-green above and bright yellow below, with a broad black mask from forehead and lores across the eye to the ear coverts. Above the mask a grey band crosses the crown. The female lacks the mask; she has an olive head with a yellowish eye-ring and lores, a yellow throat and a somewhat duller belly. Young males show an incomplete mask.
Confusion species
Masked Yellowthroat Geothlypis aequinoctialis and Black-lored Yellowthroat Geothlypis auricularis are very similar but occur elsewhere: the former in the north of the continent, the latter west of the Andes. Flavescent Warbler Myiothlypis flaveola, which occurs in eastern Bolivia, lacks the mask, has a yellow supercilium and lives in forest undergrowth rather than marshes. The call, a fast chatter, differs from that of the other yellowthroats.
Habitat
Marshes, wet and seasonally flooded grassland, reedbeds, rank growth along ditches and banks, and humid savanna with tall grass and shrubs, mainly below 1000 m. It forages low in the vegetation for insects and spiders. The nest is an open cup, low in dense herbs or grass.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Bolivia in the northern and eastern lowlands, including the Beni savannas and Santa Cruz. In Peru only in the south-east, in the savannas of the Pampas del Heath and surroundings. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in central and southern Brazil, Paraguay, northern Argentina and Uruguay.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search the edges of marshes and wet grassland in the Beni in the early morning; singing males then often perch on top of a stem. The fast chatter gives the bird away even when it stays low in the vegetation.
Conservation status
Not evaluated in this circumscription. The Red List treats the yellowthroats of South America as a single species, rated Least Concern. Drainage and conversion of wet grassland locally affect its habitat.
Scientific name
Geothlypis velata | (Vieillot, 1809)
Vieillot described the species in 1809 as Sylvia velata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Geothlypis was introduced in 1847 by Cabanis. The genus name combines Greek geō-, 'ground-, earth-', with thlupis, an unidentified small bird. The species name comes from Latin velatus, 'veiled', after the black mask. The specimen the first description was based on came from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.