Black-chested Tyrant

Overview

The black-chested tyrant (Taeniotriccus andrei) is a species of tyrant flycatcher found in Brazil, Suriname, and Venezuela. It is the only member of its genus and has a disjunct distribution across the northern and southern regions of the Amazon basin.

Identification

• Small bird, approximately 12 cm long, with a long black crest on males and a short one on females.
• Males feature a rufous-chestnut head, black back, and a wide black band on the breast, contrasting with yellow bases on the flight feathers.
• Females have a duller rufous head, brownish-olive back, and bronze-olive gray breast.
• Song consists of widely spaced, alternating 'tjuw' and 'tuweet-tueet' notes.

Habitat

It inhabits dense understory vegetation with viny tangles in humid tropical forests, edges of seasonally flooded várzea forest, and coastal mangroves in Venezuela. The species ranges in elevation from sea level to about 350 m.

Diet

The bird feeds on insects, foraging singly or in pairs within dense vegetation about 3 m above the ground. It primarily takes prey from foliage, vines, and branches using short sallies from a perch.

Did you know?

In eastern Brazil, the species exhibits a wide tolerance to different forest types, occupying both undisturbed and disturbed forests, which makes it less threatened by land-use change than many other Amazonian forest-dependent species.