All species › Passerines › Tityras, becards and allies › Barred Becard
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Barred Becard | Pachyramphus versicolor
Gebandeerde bekarde | Cabezón barrado
The Barred Becard is a small becard of montane forest, with finely barred underparts. It forages in the canopy and at forest edges, often in mixed flocks with other small birds. In the guide area it lives only in the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama.
Voice
A short series of soft, high, whistled notes; also thin contact calls.
Recording: Jacob Wijpkema — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13 cm. Male with a glossy black crown and black upperparts; lores, cheeks and throat pale grey to yellowish white; underparts pale grey with fine dark bars. Wings black with white edges to the coverts and flight feathers. The female has a grey crown, an olive-green back, rufous wing coverts and yellowish underparts with fine dark bars.
Confusion species
Black-and-white Becard Pachyramphus albogriseus, which lives in the same mountains, is larger; the male has a grey back and unbarred grey underparts, the female a chestnut crown bordered with black. Other becards in the guide area have no barring below.
Habitat
Canopy, edges and clearings of montane and cloud forest, also tall secondary forest, mainly between about 1500 and 3000 m. It eats insects and small fruit. It often joins mixed flocks of small birds.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama. Outside the guide area in the Andes from Colombia and Venezuela to Bolivia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Look for it in mixed flocks in the oak cloud forest of the Cordillera de Talamanca, for example around San Gerardo de Dota in Costa Rica. Watch for a small becard with barred underparts high in the trees.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Rather scarce in the guide area; depends on montane forest.
Scientific name
Pachyramphus versicolor | (Hartlaub, 1843)
Hartlaub described the species in 1843 as Vireo versicolor; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Pachyramphus was introduced in 1840 by Gray. Pachyramphus is Greek, from pakhus 'thick' and rhamphos 'bill', after the stout, broad bill. versicolor is Latin for 'variegated, many-coloured', after the male's mix of black, grey, yellow and white. The specimen the first description was based on came from 'Bogotá', Colombia (trade skin).