Southern Tropical Pewee

Overview

The Contopus cinereus is a small passerine bird in the family Tyrannidae, known as a tyrant flycatcher. It is found across parts of South America, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay, and is currently classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

Identification

• Measures 13.5 to 14.5 cm in length and weighs approximately 10 to 15 g.
• Adults have a dark blackish gray crown with a slight crest, white to grayish white lores, and a thin white eye-ring on a grayish olive face.
• Upperparts are sooty olive-gray with brownish olive rump and uppertail coverts, while wings are mostly dusky with two thin wing bars.
• Underparts are white with a gray tinge on the upper breast, transitioning to white or yellowish white on the belly, with pale brown undertail coverts.

Habitat

The species inhabits a variety of semi-open landscapes, including light woodlands, secondary woodlands, plantations, and the edges of semi-deciduous forest. It is distributed across central and eastern Brazil, eastern Bolivia, northern Paraguay, and parts of Argentina, with one subspecies reaching Peru as a rare migrant.

Diet

The southern tropical pewee feeds exclusively on insects, though specific details are lacking. It typically forages singly or in pairs, sitting erect on exposed perches at mid-level height and capturing prey in mid-air via hawking sallies, often shivering its tail upon returning to the perch.

Did you know?

Males perform a courtship display involving squatting, jumping, and flicking their wings and tail, while nests are constructed from lichens, seed down, plant fibers, and green moss, all bound together and to branches using spider silk.