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Lesser Greenlet | Pachysylvia decurtata
Kleine vireo | Verdillo menor
The Lesser Greenlet is a small, compact, short-tailed vireo of the canopy of humid forest. It is one of the core species of canopy mixed flocks and is mainly detected by voice. In the guide area it lives from south-eastern Mexico to Panama.
Voice
The song consists of short, rapid, repeated phrases of two or three clear notes, often kept up for long periods from the canopy.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
10–11 cm; tail short. Upperparts olive-green; head grey in most birds in the guide area, greener in eastern Panama. Conspicuous white eye-ring, eye dark. Underparts whitish with a yellowish wash on the flanks. Bill fairly short and pale.
Confusion species
Ochre-crowned Greenlet Tunchiornis ochraceiceps lives in the understorey, is browner and has an ochre forehead and a pale eye. Scrub Greenlet Hylophilus flavipes has a longer tail, a pale eye and no eye-ring, and lives in dry scrub. Females of some warblers look similar but are slimmer and longer-tailed.
Habitat
Canopy and edges of humid lowland and foothill forest, also secondary forest, trees in open country and shade coffee. Forages actively among leaves for insects, often in mixed flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
From south-eastern Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to Panama. Outside the guide area in western Colombia and Ecuador to north-western Peru.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Almost every canopy mixed flock in humid lowland forest contains one or more; the song can be heard all day.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Common in humid forest and forest edges.
Scientific name
Pachysylvia decurtata | (Bonaparte, 1838) (GBIF: Hylophilus decurtatus)
Bonaparte described the species in 1838 as Sylvicola decurtata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Pachysylvia was introduced in 1850 by Bonaparte. Pachysylvia combines Greek pakhus 'thick, stout' with the genus Sylvia (warblers), after the stocky build. decurtata is Latin for 'shortened, cut off', after the short tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from Guatemala.