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Northern Scrub Flycatcher | Sublegatus arenarum
Noordelijke struikvliegenpikker | Mosquero matorralero norteño
The Northern Scrub Flycatcher is an unobtrusive grey and yellow tyrant of mangroves and dry scrub along the coasts of northern South America and southern Central America. In the Caribbean it lives on Trinidad and the ABC Islands. It was formerly treated as one species with two South American relatives; genetic studies suggest the genus is related to the elaenias.
Voice
Rather quiet. The commonest calls are an abrupt, rising pweeee or pee-yap, single or doubled, and a short whistled phew-dit.
Recording: Gean Carlo Valdés — CC0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
13–15 cm. Crown grey-brown, sometimes raised as a small crest. A pale supercilium and a dark eye-stripe give the face a masked look. Back grey-brown; wings dark with pale edges and two wing bars. Throat whitish, breast pale grey, and the belly medium yellow, sharply demarcated from the breast. Tail dark with narrow pale tips. The bill is short and all black. Birds on the ABC Islands are paler and greyer than those on Trinidad.
Confusion species
Southern Beardless Tyrannulet Camptostoma obsoletum is smaller, with an erect crest, a pale-based bill and a gradual transition to the yellow belly. Mouse-colored Tyrannulet Nesotriccus murinus is smaller and drabber, with a pale lower mandible and little yellow. Caribbean Elaenia Elaenia martinica and other elaenias have a longer bill with a pale base to the lower mandible, often a white crown patch and no sharp border between breast and belly. Brown-crested Flycatcher Myiarchus tyrannulus is much larger, with rufous in wings and tail.
Habitat
Mangroves, coastal scrub, thorn and cactus scrub, dry woodland and secondary growth, from sea level to a few hundred metres. It hunts quietly from a sheltered perch in the scrub, taking insects from leaves with short sallies; small berries are also eaten.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Resident on Trinidad, mainly in the mangroves and dry scrub of the west coast and on the islets of the Bocas, and on Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire; not on Tobago. Outside the region from Costa Rica and Panama along the coasts and in dry areas of Colombia, Venezuela and the Guianas, and on the Venezuelan offshore islands.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Fairly common in cactus scrub and mangroves on the ABC Islands, but often overlooked because of its quiet behaviour. On Trinidad the mangroves of the Caroni Swamp are a good place to look. The sharply demarcated yellow belly and short black bill are the keys to identification.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species has a large range; habitat is lost locally through mangrove clearance and coastal development.
Scientific name
Sublegatus arenarum | (Salvin, 1863)
Salvin described the species in 1863 as Elainea arenarum; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Sublegatus was introduced in 1868 by Sclater & Salvin. Sublegatus is Latin sub 'near to' plus the genus Legatus (Piratic Flycatcher): 'allied to Legatus'. arenarum is Latin for 'of the sands', after the type locality Punta Arenas in Costa Rica. The specimen the first description was based on came from Punta Arenas, Costa Rica.