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Grey-cheeked Nunlet | Nonnula frontalis
Noordelijke grijswangtrappist | Monjilla carigrís
The Grey-cheeked Nunlet is a small, inconspicuous puffbird with grey cheeks and a cinnamon breast. Within the guide area it lives only in central and eastern Panama. It sits quietly in the understorey or lower tree layer of the forest and is usually found by its call.
Voice
A long series of high, plaintive whistled notes, weet-weet-weet, which may gradually rise slightly in pitch. Also a few soft calls.
Recording: Kent Livezey — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
14–16 cm. Upperparts plain olive-brown. Lores and cheeks grey; throat, breast and flanks warm cinnamon, belly paler to whitish. The bill is fairly long, thin, slightly curved and dark grey. Tail short and brown. Sexes alike.
Confusion species
White-whiskered Puffbird Malacoptila panamensis is larger and stockier, with white whiskers and streaked underparts. Lanceolated Monklet Micromonacha lanceolata (western Panama and Costa Rica) is white below with black streaks. A female antshrike or antvireo has a straight, hook-tipped bill and sits still for shorter periods.
Habitat
Understorey and lower tree layer of humid lowland forest, tall secondary forest and dense vine tangles at forest edges, up to about 500 m. It sits still for long periods on a thin horizontal branch and takes insects and spiders from leaves and twigs in a short flight. It probably nests in a cavity, like other puffbirds.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Within the guide area only in central and eastern Panama, from the Canal Area and Coclé east to Darién and the Emberá comarca, where most records come from. Outside the guide area in northern Colombia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Most records come from the lowlands of Darién. Listening for the series of high, plaintive whistles in dense growth at forest edges is the best way to find it.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Little known and fairly scarce in the guide area, but tolerates secondary forest.
Scientific name
Nonnula frontalis | (Sclater, 1854)
Sclater described the species in 1854 as Malacoptila frontalis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Nonnula was introduced in 1854 by Sclater. Nonnula is a diminutive of Late Latin nonna 'nun': 'little nun', after the sober grey-brown plumage. frontalis is Latin, from frons 'forehead', after the rufous forehead. The specimen the first description was based on came from Colombia.