Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant (Ochthoeca fumicolor)

Identification & Behavior: ~15.5 cm (6.1 in). The Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant has a brown mantle. The wings are blackish with two rufous wing bars. The head is grayish with pale or buffy, often not well-defined superciliary. The underparts are rufous. The bill is black. The iris is dark. It forages in semi-open and humid habitat where it often perches high on top of the vegetation. It is very similar to the D’Orbigny’s Chat-Tyrant but is distinguished by an overall warmer plumage, two rufous wing bars, and by favoring humid habitats at lower elevations. These two chat-tyrants may only overlap in Puno and Cuzco.

Status: The Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant is fairly common in humid montane forests of the east and west (mostly Piura and Cajamarca) slopes of the Andes at elevations ranging between 2500-4100 m. It also occurs in Co, Ec, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Pitajo de Dorso Pardo.

Sub-species: Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant (Ochthoeca fumicolor brunneifrons), Berlepsch and Stolzmann, 1896.  C & W Andes of Colombia S to N & C Peru.
(Ochthoeca fumicolor berlepschi), Hellmayr, 1914.  SE Peru (Cuzco, Puno) and W & C Bolivia (La Paz, Cochabamba).

Meaning of Name: Ochthoeca: Gr. okhthos= bank, mound and oikos, oikeo = dwelling, to inhabit. fumicolor: L. fumus, fumi= smoke and color, coloris= color.

See more of the Family Tyrannidae