All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Choco Sirystes
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Choco Sirystes | Sirystes albogriseus
Chocósirystestiran | Sirystes del Chocó
The Choco Sirystes is a medium-sized grey, black and white tyrant flycatcher of the canopy of humid lowland forest. It resembles a Myiarchus flycatcher in shape but stands out by its black cap and the contrast between the grey back, the white rump and the black wings and tail. In the guide area it occurs only in eastern Panama.
Voice
Loud, repeated, somewhat rolling whistles, often in short series, which carry far through the forest.
Recording: Patricio Mena Valenzuela — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
18 cm, with a slight crest and a fairly short dark bill. Crown black, sharply demarcated from the grey sides of the head. Back grey, rump whitish. Wings black with whitish edges to the coverts and inner flight feathers; tail black. Underparts pale grey, becoming whitish towards the belly. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
Myiarchus flycatchers have a brownish head without a black cap, rufous in the wings or tail and often a yellow belly. Male White-winged Becard Pachyramphus polychopterus is smaller and stockier, with a black back and a shorter, thicker bill. Grey Kingbird Tyrannus dominicensis has a dark mask instead of a black cap and usually perches in the open on wires and dead branches.
Habitat
Canopy and upper levels of humid evergreen lowland and foothill forest, also tall forest edges and clearings with large trees. It forages high in the trees for large insects, taken from leaves and twigs with short sallies, and often joins 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 only in eastern Panama, mainly in Darién and eastern Panamá province. Outside the guide area in the Chocó region of western Colombia and north-western Ecuador.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search in extensive lowland forest in Darién. Listen high in the canopy for the loud whistles and look for a grey bird with a black cap among mixed flocks.
Conservation status
Not threatened according to the IUCN, but restricted to the lowland forest of the Chocó region and Darién and therefore sensitive to deforestation. Rather scarce and seldom seen.
Scientific name
Sirystes albogriseus | (Lawrence, 1863) (GBIF: Sirystes sibilator)
Lawrence described the species in 1863 as Lipaugus albogriseus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Sirystes was introduced in 1860 by Cabanis & Heine. Sirystes is Greek suristēs 'piper', from surizō 'to play the pipes', after the whistled call. albogriseus is Latin, from albus 'white' and griseus 'grey', after the white-and-grey plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Lion Hill on the Panama Railroad, Panama.