Mishana Tyrannulet

Overview

The Mishana tyrannulet (Zimmerius villarejoi) is a species of tyrant flycatcher endemic to Peru. It is currently classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, although its population is believed to be decreasing due to habitat loss.

Identification

• Weighs approximately 6 to 7 g.
• Adults possess an olive crown, back, and rump, with a slightly paler and more greenish face.
• Wings are dull blackish with sulphur yellow edges on the coverts and secondaries; the tail is dusky with thin olive green edges.
• Throat is pale greenish olive, while the breast is olive yellow and the belly and undertail coverts are sulphur yellow.
• Has a pale creamy white iris, a pale brown to dull reddish maxilla, a dull pink mandible, and bluish black, gray, or dull reddish legs.

Habitat

The species has two disjunct populations, one in the basins of the Nanay and Tigre rivers in Loreto Department and the other in the basins of the Mayo and Huallaga rivers in San Martín Department. Both populations primarily inhabit scrubby or low-stature forest on nutrient-poor white sand soils, with some variation including forest on weathered clay soil, peatlands, and stunted secondary forest.

Diet

The Mishana tyrannulet feeds on arthropods, seeds, and small fruits, including those of mistletoes. It forages singly or in pairs, rarely joining mixed-species feeding flocks, and mostly operates in the forest subcanopy and canopy by actively moving about, gleaning, and making brief sallies to leaves and twigs.

Did you know?

The bird's common name originates from the Zona Reservada Allpahuayo-Mishana in San Martín, where the holotype was collected, and its scientific epithet honours P. Avencio Villarejo, an Augustinian priest who explored the Peruvian Amazon in the 1930s and 1940s.