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Straneck's Tyrannulet | Serpophaga griseicapilla
Grijskruintachuri | Piojito de Straneck | Alegrinho-trinador
Straneck's Tyrannulet is a small grey tyrant described as a species only in 2007, after it turned out to have been hidden in field guides under White-crested Tyrannulet. It breeds mainly in the Monte Desert of Argentina and moves north and east after breeding. The call is its main feature.
Voice
The call is a high, not far-carrying twee tirrrrrrr, sometimes only the first or second part. In alarm a more forceful series of three to five high notes, tee… tee… tee.
Recording: Miguel Angelo Biz — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
10 cm, with a short black bill. The crown and nape are grey, with some concealed white in the crown and little or no black around it. There is a thin white supercilium, a white crescent below the eye and a dark grey eye-stripe. The upperparts are olive-brown; the wings are dark brownish grey, with two cinnamon to whitish wing bars. Throat white, breast greyish and belly pale yellow. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
White-crested Tyrannulet Serpophaga subcristata is almost identical, with more black around the white crown patch and usually white wing bars; the call is the most reliable difference. Southern Beardless Tyrannulet Camptostoma obsoletum has a rusty crest, a pale bill base and a shorter tail. Plain Inezia Inezia inornata has a white eye-ring and no crown patch.
Habitat
Chaco thorn scrub and dry forest, riverside scrub and woodland edges, from the lowlands to about 2300 m. It searches for arthropods by moving through the vegetation with short hops and flutters, from just above the ground to about 6 m.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Bolivia mainly as a visitor in the austral winter, in the lowlands of the south and east; it has been recorded in the Chaco in the breeding season, but breeding has not been confirmed. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area it breeds in Argentina; in winter also in Paraguay, Uruguay and southern Brazil.
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
From May to September, listen in scrub and dry forest in the Bolivian Chaco for the high, rolling call; without voice it cannot be safely told from White-crested Tyrannulet in the field.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a large range and the population is considered stable.
Scientific name
Serpophaga griseicapilla | Straneck, 2008
Straneck described the species in 2008 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Serpophaga was introduced in 1839 by Gould. The genus name comes from Greek serphos, 'gnat, small insect', and -phagos, '-eating'. The species name comes from medieval Latin griseus, 'grey', and Latin capillus, 'hair of the head', after the grey crown. The specimen the first description was based on came from Misión Nueva Pompeya, Chaco, Argentina.