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Black-tailed Myiobius | Myiobius atricaudus
Zwartstaarttiran | Mosquerito colinegro
The Black-tailed Myiobius is a small, active flycatcher with a yellow rump and a black tail, closely related to the Sulphur-rumped Myiobius. It keeps more to forest edges, secondary forest and stream sides. In the guide area it occurs only in south-western Costa Rica and Panama.
Voice
A sharp, short tsik or psit, similar to that of Sulphur-rumped Myiobius.
Recording: Rodrigo Dela Rosa de Souza — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–13 cm. Upperparts olive-green with a bright yellow rump; tail black. Throat whitish, breast pale ochre to buff, belly pale yellow. The male has a mostly concealed yellow crown patch. Bill broad and flat, with long bristles at its base.
Confusion species
Sulphur-rumped Myiobius Myiobius sulphureipygius has a warmer tawny-ochre breast that contrasts more sharply with the yellow belly and keeps more to the interior of humid forest. Where both occur they are hard to separate; note breast colour and habitat. Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher Terenotriccus erythrurus has a rufous tail and no yellow rump.
Habitat
Understorey of forest edges, secondary forest, gallery forest and humid forest along streams, in the lowlands and foothills. It flutters with spread tail and drooped wings after insects, sometimes in mixed flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area in south-western Costa Rica (Pacific slope) and locally in Panama. Outside the guide area in north-western South America, parts of Amazonia and eastern Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
At forest edges and along streams on the southern Pacific slope of Costa Rica, watch for a fluttering small bird with a yellow rump; in that region Sulphur-rumped Myiobius is scarcer.
Conservation status
Not threatened. In the guide area local and less common than Sulphur-rumped Myiobius.
Scientific name
Myiobius atricaudus | Lawrence, 1863
Lawrence described the species in 1863 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Myiobius was introduced in 1839 by Gray. Myiobius is Greek, from muia 'fly' and bios 'life': 'living on flies'. atricaudus is Latin, from ater 'black' and cauda 'tail', after the black tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from Lion Hill, Isthmus of Panama.