Sooty-crowned Flycatcher (Myiarchus phaeocephalus)

Identification & Behavior: ~18 cm (7 in). The Sooty-crowned Flycatcher has a gray mantle and wing coverts edged with brown. It has no rufous on the wing and tail feathers. The crown is gray with a bushy crest. The bill is mostly black with pale only on the base of the mandible. The throat and breast are gray and grade to yellow towards the rest of the underparts. It forages in semideciduous forest and scrub.  It is similar to the Dusky-capped Flycatcher but is distinguished by having a crown concolor with the mantle, brown wing coverts, and by foraging in drier habitats. The also similar Brown-crested Flycatcher has rufous on the wing and tail.

Status: The Sooty-crowned Flycatcher is uncommon in northwest Peru and part of the Marañon Drainage where it is known to range up to 600 m along the foothill of the Andes. It also occurs in Co, Ec, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Copetón de Corona Tiznada.

Sub-species: Sooty-crowned Flycatcher (Myiarchus phaeocephalus phaeocephalus), P. L. Sclater, 1860.  W Ecuador (S from N W Esmeraldas and W Pichincha) and NW Peru (S to Lambayeque).
(Myiarchus phaeocephalus interior), J. T. Zimmer, 1938.  extreme SE Ecuador (near Zumba, in S Zamora-Chinchipe) and N Peru (upper R Marañón drainage in Cajamarca and Amazonas).

Meaning of Name: Myiarchus: Gr. muia, muias= fly and arkhos, arkho= ruler, chief. phaeocephalus: Gr. phaios= dusky, brown, gray and kephalos, kephale= headed, head.

See more of the Family Tyrannidae