Buff-throated Tody-Tyrant

Overview

The buff-throated tody-tyrant is a small songbird belonging to the tyrant flycatcher family. It is a year-round resident found along the eastern Andes and is currently assessed as a species of Least Concern by the IUCN, despite a declining population trend.

Identification

• Approximately 12 cm long with olive green back, rump, wings, and tail.
• Features a grayish buff crown and nape with an indistinct buffy white eye-ring on a cinnamon buff face.
• Underparts are pale cinnamon buff on the throat and breast with faint gray streaks, transitioning to a whitish, yellow-tinted belly and gray-mottled flanks.
• Song consists of a slow series of 1–5 rising, mewed, nasal dweep or dwip notes, with calls of a more rapid rising series of notes like dew-dew-dew-DEWP-DEWP?.

Habitat

The species inhabits humid montane forest in the subtropical zone, typically occupying outlying ridges in the foothills rather than the main Andean slope. It ranges from northern Ecuador through Peru into western Bolivia, with its range also extending into Colombia according to certain authorities. Elevation preferences vary by region, generally occurring between 750 m and 1,700 m.

Diet

Feeds on insects, typically foraging singly or in pairs within the forest's middle level at heights of 2 to 8 m. It often captures prey by making short upward sallies from a perch to grab insects from the underside of leaves.

Did you know?

Knowledge of the species' breeding biology is extremely limited, with only a single nest ever recorded, which was a ball of grass and twigs suspended just 1 m above the ground.