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Southern Beardless Tyrannulet | Camptostoma obsoletum
Geelkeelvliegenpikker | Mosquerito silbador
The Southern Beardless Tyrannulet is a small, olive tyrant flycatcher with a scruffy little crest, a pale bill base, two distinct wing-bars and yellowish underparts. It often holds its tail slightly cocked and is mostly detected by its clear whistled notes. In the guide area it lives in Costa Rica and Panama.
Voice
A series of clear, rather plaintive whistled notes falling in pitch, and a clear tee-dee-dee.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
10–11 cm, with a short, small bill with a pale, orangey base to the lower mandible. Crown brownish-grey with a small, often raised crest. Narrow pale eyebrow. Upperparts olive-grey; wings dark with two distinct dull yellow to buff wing-bars. Throat pale grey, breast greyish-olive, belly pale yellow. Tail often slightly cocked. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
Northern Beardless Tyrannulet Camptostoma imberbe, which ranges to north-western Costa Rica, is duller and greyer, with a less pronounced crest and less obvious wing-bars. Mouse-colored Tyrannulet Nesotriccus murinus is larger, without a crest and with a longer bill. Yellow Tyrannulet Capsiempis flaveola is brighter yellow below and has a yellow eyebrow.
Habitat
Semi-open country with trees and shrubs: forest edges, second growth, gallery forest, pasture with scattered trees, mangrove edges, gardens and parks. It gleans insects and spiders among foliage and also eats small berries.
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 southern and central Costa Rica, mainly on the Pacific slope and in the Central Valley, and over much of Panama. Outside the guide area widespread in South America, to northern Argentina and Uruguay.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In Panama a common bird of gardens, parks and forest edges, including around Panama City. The clear whistles and the cocked tail help to find it.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Common and widespread; benefits from semi-open, man-made landscapes and appears to be spreading in Costa Rica.
Scientific name
Camptostoma obsoletum | (Temminck, 1824)
Temminck described the species in 1824 as Muscicapa obsoleta; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Camptostoma was introduced in 1857 by Sclater. Camptostoma is Greek, from kamptos 'bent' and stoma 'mouth', after the curved culmen. obsoletum is Latin for 'indistinct, worn', after the plain, dull greenish plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.