- Elaenia frantzii
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Identification
15 cm and weighs 17-20 g. Bill is short for an Elaenia. Dull olive upperparts, narrow white eye ring, dusky wings with narrow yellow feather edges and two off-white wing bars. Yellow-grey throat and breast, dull yellow belly. Sexes are similar, but young birds are browner above, paler below, and have brighter wing bars.
Distribution
Highlands from Guatemala to Colombia and western Venezuela.
Taxonomy
Four subspecies are recognized: frantzii, ultima, pudica and browni.
Habitat
This flycatcher breeds above 1200m (4000ft) altitude in wet mountain forests, especially at the edges and in clearings, and in adjacent second growth, semi-open areas, or pastures with trees.
After breeding it moves lower (Aug-Sept to late January), down to 900m (3000ft), and may also undergo seasonal migration.
Behaviour
Call is a slurred peeeeur, longer than that of Mistletoe Tyrannulet. Dawn song of the male during the breeding season, a repetitive d’weet d’weet song, sometimes interspersed with gurgling short syllables, ch'weeza-chur ch'weet.
The female builds a cupshaped nest made of mosses, liverworts and lichens, lined with plant fibres and downy feathers. 2 cinnamon-blotched whitish eggs are laid and incubated by the female for 15-16 days.
It perches on a shaded watchpoint from which it sallies forth to pick insects, spiders, and many berries and seeds from foliage or even the ground. All its food is taken in flight.
The Mountain Elaenia is solitary when not breeding.
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
