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Lesser Antillean Flycatcher | Myiarchus oberi
Bruinvleugeltiran | Copetón de Ober
The Lesser Antillean Flycatcher is the Myiarchus of the Lesser Antilles between St Kitts and St Lucia. It lives mainly in the canopy and at the edges of moist forest in the hills, where its long, plaintive whistles are heard more often than the bird is seen. Four subspecies are recognised, each on one or a few islands.
Voice
Long, plaintive, sustained whistles, such as a drawn-out peeeuu. The dawn song consists of a long first note, two very short notes and a lower, plaintive final note.
Recording: Allen T. Chartier — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
19–22 cm, with an obvious crest. Crown and upperparts are dark olive-green to olive-brown, the face grey-olive. The wings are brown, with rufous edges to the feathers; the uppertail coverts and tail show rufous. Throat and breast are grey, the belly yellow with greenish-tinged flanks. Bill, legs and iris are dark. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
No other Myiarchus on its islands; Grenada Flycatcher Myiarchus nugator lives further south. Grey Kingbird Tyrannus dominicensis is grey and white, without crest, yellow or rufous, and perches in the open. Caribbean Elaenia Elaenia martinica is smaller, with white wing bars. Lesser Antillean Pewee Contopus latirostris is much smaller and has buff-brown underparts without yellow.
Habitat
Canopy and edges of moist evergreen forest, mainly between about 100 and 900 m, also plantations with trees and, on some islands, drier woodland and thorn scrub. It hunts insects from a perch in the canopy and also eats fruit. It nests in tree cavities.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
St Kitts, Nevis and Barbuda (subspecies berlepschii), Guadeloupe and Dominica (oberi), Martinique (sclateri) and St Lucia (sanctaeluciae). It occurs nowhere else.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best early in the morning along trails and roads through moist hill forest, for example on Dominica and St Lucia. The plaintive whistle gives the bird away; it can then often be tracked down in the canopy.
Conservation status
Not threatened, but the range is small and numbers seem to be declining. Threats are forest clearance and hurricane damage.
Scientific name
Myiarchus oberi | Lawrence, 1877
Lawrence described the species in 1877 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Myiarchus was introduced in 1844 by Cabanis. Myiarchus is Greek, from muia 'fly' and arkhos 'ruler': 'fly-ruler'. oberi honours the American naturalist and writer Frederick Albion Ober (1849–1913), who explored the Lesser Antilles. The specimen the first description was based on came from Dominica.