All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Variegated Flycatcher
Variegated Flycatcher | Empidonomus varius
Bonte tiran | Mosquero variegado | Peitica
The Variegated Flycatcher is a streaked flycatcher of forest edges and semi-open country that closely resembles the much larger Streaked Flycatcher. Southern birds breed from Bolivia to Argentina and move to Amazonia in the austral winter; in addition there are resident birds in northern South America. It often perches upright for long periods on a bare branch high in a tree.
Voice
Mostly silent away from the breeding grounds. A high, thin whistle, roughly pseeee; on the breeding grounds a soft song of high notes.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
18 cm. A streaked flycatcher with a short, narrow, entirely black bill. The crown is dark, with a concealed yellow crown patch, and is bordered by a white supercilium; a broad dark eye-stripe runs to the nape, with a white cheek stripe and a narrow dark malar stripe below. The upperparts are brown with dark mottling, the wing feathers have pale edges. The underparts are yellowish-white with broad brown streaks on breast and flanks. Uppertail coverts and tail edges are rufous. Sexes alike.
Confusion species
Streaked Flycatcher Myiodynastes maculatus is larger, with a much heavier bill with a pale base to the lower mandible and more rufous in the tail. Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher Myiodynastes luteiventris, a boreal winter visitor, has a heavy bill, a black malar stripe that meets on the chin and a yellower belly. Piratic Flycatcher Legatus leucophaius has an unstreaked brown back and no rufous in the tail.
Habitat
Forest edges, open woodland, gallery forest, savanna with scattered trees, river islands and gardens, in the guide area mostly below 1000 m. Winter visitors often sit in the canopy along rivers and in secondary forest. It eats insects caught from a perch, and also much fruit. It builds a shallow cup 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: austral winter visitor east of the Andes, mainly in Amazonia and the Llanos; also resident birds in the east. Ecuador: scarce austral winter visitor in the eastern lowlands. Peru: austral winter visitor in the Amazonian lowlands. Bolivia: breeds in the lowlands of the east and south, from September to March; winter visitor in the north. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina.
- 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
Search between April and September in the canopy along rivers and lakes in the Amazonian lowlands, or in the austral summer in semi-open country in eastern Bolivia. It often sits motionless for a long time on a bare branch in the crown.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Widespread and fairly common over a large range.
Scientific name
Empidonomus varius | (Vieillot, 1818)
Vieillot described the species in 1818 as Muscicapa varia; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Empidonomus was introduced in 1860 by Cabanis & Heine. The genus name comes from Greek empis (genitive empidos), 'gnat', and -nomos, 'ruling over'. The species name comes from Latin varius, 'variegated', referring to the streaked plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Paraguay.