Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo

Overview

The slaty-capped shrike-vireo is a species of bird within the family Vireonidae, the vireos, greenlets, and shrike-babblers. It inhabits South American regions with a disjunct distribution, present in every mainland country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Identification

• Adults of the nominate subspecies display a blue-gray crown and nape contrasted with a bright yellow forehead, supercilium, and crescent below the eye.
• Upperparts and tail are a bright olive-green, while the chin, throat, and breast are bright lemon yellow, fading to duller yellow on the belly.
• Flight feathers are mostly dull blackish gray with olive-green outer webs that create a bright patch on the closed wing.
• The song consists of a single loud melodious descending whistle, described as tyeer or eear, which seems endless when repeated.

Habitat

The species lives in the canopy and edges of humid forest found in lowlands, foothills, and lower parts of the highlands. Its elevation range varies by location, reaching up to 1,800 m in Brazil, 1,400 m in Peru, and 2,000 m in Colombia.

Diet

The bird feeds on arthropods, apparently favouring caterpillars. It forages primarily from the mid-story to the canopy of the forest, taking most prey from the underside of leaves and twigs. It typically forages singly, in pairs, or family groups and often leads mixed-species feeding flocks.

Did you know?

The species sings especially when leading a mixed-species flock throughout the morning, a behaviour that likely functions to allow the flock to maintain itself. Subspecies V. l. mikettae is treated as a separate species, the pale-legged shrike-vireo, by BirdLife International, although other taxonomies consider it a subspecies of the slaty-capped shrike-vireo.