Snethlage's Tody-Tyrant

Overview

Snethlage's tody-tyrant (Hemitriccus minor) is a small bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers, found in Bolivia, Brazil, and possibly Peru and Venezuela. The species is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, with a very large range despite a believed decreasing population.

Identification

• Approximately 10 cm long and weighing 7 to 7.9 g, with a short bushy crest on the olive-green crown.
• Olive-green face, back, and rump, with olive wings and tail showing two indistinct wing bars.
• Mostly pale yellow underparts with faint greyish-olive streaks, or mostly white in some individuals; all subspecies have white to pale yellow irises and grey to pinkish-grey legs.
• Vocalisation described as a short, gravelly, downslurred 'drrru' trill.

Habitat

Inhabits the Amazon Basin, ranging from eastern Brazil near the lower Xingu and Tocantins rivers through central and western Amazonian Brazil and into northeastern Bolivia, with tentative presence in Peru and Venezuela. It occupies terra firme and mature secondary tropical evergreen forest, or igapó forest depending on the subspecies, typically staying in vine tangles and dense vegetation at forest edges or gaps.

Diet

Feeds on insects, foraging singly or in pairs within thick undergrowth between 3 and 8 m above the ground. It employs short upward sallies from a perch to glean prey from the underside of vegetation and is not known to join mixed-species feeding flocks.

Did you know?

The species and its subspecific epithet H. m. snethlageae both commemorate Emilie Snethlage, a German-born Brazilian naturalist and ornithologist who lived from 1868 to 1929.