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Golden-bellied Flycatcher - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by Birdingcraft
Tapanti National Park near Orosi, Costa Rica, November 2009
Myiodynastes hemichrysus

Identification

Length 18–20 cm
A large flycatcher with bright yellow underparts, most easily distinguished from other similar flycatchers by the dark stripe between throat and lower cheek.

  • Upperside greenish olive
  • Wings with rufous edges to inner primaries and outer secondaries, and yellowish on inner secondaries. Rufous also on some coverts and tail feathers.
  • Underside yellow with whitish throat
  • Breast and to lesser extent flanks have indistinct darker streaks
  • Head mostly dark, with white supercilium and cheek-stripe.
  • Semi-concealed yellow to orange crown stripe
  • Prominent bristles at base of bill
  • Eyes brown
  • Bill black and prominent

Similar Species

Subspecies minor
Photo © by megan perkins
Maquipicuna lodge, Ecuador, February 2005

Boat-billed Flycatcher (bill shape similar but wider), Great Kiskadee, White-ringed Flycatcher, Social Flycatcher, Gray-capped Flycatcher.

Distribution

Central and South America: found in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador.

Taxonomy

Two subspecies were formerly considered part of Golden-crowned Flycatcher.

Subspecies

Subspecies cinerascens
Photo © by Luis R
El Ávila. Caracas. Venezuela, September 2014

Three subspecies are recognized[1]:

  • M. h. hemichrysus:
  • M. h. minor:
  • Extreme eastern Panama (Darién) and Colombia south to Ecuador and extreme northern Peru (on the west slope in Piura, and on the east slope north and west of the Marañón Valley)
  • M. h. cinerascens:
  • Andes of northern Colombia and coastal cordillera of northern Venezuela

Habitat

Middle elevation wet forest, particularly near water courses, roads, and other places where the forest is a little more open or edge-like. Found at middle levels of central cordilleran mountains between 800 and 2300m.

Behaviour

Usually seen in pairs or small family groups.

Diet

Their diet consists mostly of fruit and insects which are captured by gleaning from surfaces of the leaves and branches of the tree.

Vocalisation

Dawn song is a phrase consisting of one strongly sounding note followed by a few more subdued, lower pitch notes. During the day, the common sound is similar to a kid squeezing a rubber toy about once a second. A third sound is a chatter with squeaky double notes.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.1)_red. Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.1. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
  3. Greeney, H. F., J. A. Mobley, and P. F. D. Boesman (2022). Golden-bellied Flycatcher (Myiodynastes hemichrysus), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gobfly1.01.1
  4. BF Member observations

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1

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