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Golden-bellied Flycatcher | Myiodynastes hemichrysus
Goudbuiktiran | Bienteveo ventridorado
The Golden-bellied Flycatcher is a robust tyrant flycatcher of montane forest and forest edges in Costa Rica and Panama, with a striped head and plain yellow, unstreaked underparts. It often perches on an exposed branch at a forest edge or over a stream. In the guide area it lives in the mountains of Costa Rica and Panama.
Voice
A loud, shrill, squeaky call of two or three notes, often repeated, and higher, scratchy calls.
Recording: Daan van der Hoeven — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
19–20 cm, with a large head and a broad, powerful black bill. Crown dark olive-brown with a concealed yellow crown patch, a white supercilium, a broad dark mask, a white moustachial stripe and a dark stripe along the throat. Back olive-brown, wings and tail darker with narrow rusty edges. Throat yellowish, rest of the underparts bright yellow without streaks. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
Streaked Flycatcher Myiodynastes maculatus and Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher Myiodynastes luteiventris have a similar head pattern but clearly streaked underparts. Boat-billed Flycatcher Megarynchus pitangua has a simpler striped head without a moustachial stripe, a greyer crown and an even broader bill. Social Flycatcher Myiozetetes similis is smaller, with a short bill and no dark stripe along the throat, and lives lower down in open country.
Habitat
Edges and clearings of humid foothill and montane forest, roughly between 600 and 2000 m, also along streams and roads and in semi-open country with tall trees. It hunts large insects from a high, exposed perch and also eats fruit. It nests in a cavity, crevice or niche in a tree or rock face.
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 the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama, east to about Veraguas; also in the mountains of Darién (Cerro Pirre and Cerro Tacarcuna) in eastern Panama. Outside the guide area in the Andes from Colombia to northern Peru and in the coastal mountains of Venezuela. The birds of Darién and the Andes are sometimes treated as a separate species.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Often seen on an exposed branch at a forest edge, clearing or stream at middle elevations in Costa Rica and western Panama.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Fairly common in suitable montane forest; also persists at forest edges and in semi-open country with tall trees.
Scientific name
Myiodynastes hemichrysus | (Cabanis, 1861)
Cabanis described the species in 1861 as Hypermitres hemichrysus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Myiodynastes was introduced in 1857 by Bonaparte. Myiodynastes is Greek, from muia 'fly' and dunastēs 'ruler': 'fly-ruler'. hemichrysus is Greek, from hēmi- 'half' and khrusos 'gold', after the golden-yellow underparts. The specimen the first description was based on came from Los Frailes, Costa Rica.