Belted Flycatcher

Overview

The belted flycatcher (Xenotriccus callizonus) is a small bird belonging to the tyrant flycatcher family, Tyrannidae. It is known from highland areas in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico, with a possibly occurring in Honduras.

Identification

• Measures 11.5 to 13 cm in length, with adult males weighing 13.0 g and females 11.5 g.
• Features a brownish olive head with a pointed blackish-brown or olive-grey crest, a wide white or pale lemon teardrop-shaped eye-ring, and a dark iris.
• Displays a wide cinnamon-rufous band across the breast, pale lemon underparts, and two pale cinnamon wing bars on dusky brown wings.
• Song is described as a rolling nasal 'pip-pip-pi'pi'pi'pi'pweee!', accompanied by calls like an emphatic 'peurrr!' and a two-part 'pee'wierr!'.
• Males jerk their tail while calling.

Habitat

The belted flycatcher inhabits dense brush and scrub in the understory of semiarid to semihumid woodlands in the tropical zone, favouring oak and pine-oak forests. It occupies elevations between 1,200 and 2,000 m in the highlands of central Chiapas in southern Mexico, through central Guatemala, and into far northwestern El Salvador.

Diet

The species feeds on insects, foraging singly or in pairs within the forest understory. It typically perches in dense vegetation and makes sallies to capture prey either in mid-air (hawking) or by snatching it from foliage.

Did you know?

While socially monogamous, the female incubates the clutch and broods the nestlings alone, during which the male feeds her, before both parents feed the nestlings and recently fledged young.