White-throated Spadebill

Overview

The white-throated spadebill (Platyrinchus mystaceus) is a tiny passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It is distributed throughout most of mainland South America, as well as Costa Rica, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Identification

• Length 9 to 11 cm, with a large head, bold facial pattern, and stubby tail.
• Wide, flat bill featuring a black maxilla and off-white to pale gray mandible.
• Upperparts olive-brown with pale buff-yellow markings on the lores, eye-ring, and behind the eye.
• Throat is whitish to pale yellow and underparts are creamy buff to ochraceous; males often display a yellow patch on the crown.
• Song varies by group: western subspecies produce a high, thin, rattling trill, while eastern subspecies sing a prolonged, bubbling or squeaky, slightly descending trill.

Habitat

Found in a variety of wooded landscapes, favouring the forest understory, including humid foothill and montane forests, gallery forests, and mature secondary woodlands. 'Western' subspecies typically occupy elevations between 400 and 2,400 m, whereas 'eastern' subspecies are primarily lowland birds found from sea level up to 1,800 m.

Diet

Feeds on arthropods, typically foraging in pairs in dense understory vegetation. Captures prey by sitting still and performing short upward sallies to grab insects from the underside of leaves and twigs, sometimes attending army ant swarms.

Did you know?

During courtship, males raise their crown patch into a fan and perform a flight display in which their wings whirr. The bill makes an audible snap during prey capture.