White-crested Tyrannulet

Overview

The white-crested tyrannulet (Serpophaga subcristata) is a small species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, commonly known as the tyrant flycatchers. It is native to South America, specifically found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The species is assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN and is considered fairly common across its extensive range.

Identification

• Small bird measuring 11 cm in length, with grayish olive upperparts and a gray crown featuring white central feathers that can be raised as a crest.
• Distinctive white supercilium, white partial eye-ring, and a dusky line through the eye on a grayish white face, with a white chin and throat.
• Wings are dusky to blackish with two whitish to pale buffy wing bars; the belly is pale yellow in the nominate subspecies but white in S. s. munda.
• Song is an almost mechanical-sounding trill, described as 'psee psee psee-e-e-e-e-e-e', often accompanied by slower, bubbly tweets.

Habitat

The species inhabits a wide variety of landscapes, including the edges of tropical forests, deciduous woodlands, gallery forests, thorn forests, dryish scrublands, cerrado, plantations, gardens, and agricultural areas. It ranges in elevation from sea level up to 2,800 m in Brazil and 2,900 m in Bolivia, though it tends to prefer more open landscapes such as scrublands and agricultural areas during the non-breeding season.

Diet

The diet is believed to consist entirely of small insects, although it has not been detailed scientifically. The bird is an active forager that flits around in scrubby vegetation, taking prey by gleaning while perched or after a short flight, and occasionally capturing insects in mid-air.

Did you know?

The subspecies S. s. munda was historically considered a full species before being lumped with the white-crested tyrannulet by BirdLife International in 2020, a taxonomic revision that was subsequently followed by major ornithological authorities in 2022 and 2023.