Yellow-bellied Elaenia (Elaenia flavogaster)

Identification & Behavior: ~16 cm (6.2 in). The Yellow-bellied Elaenia has a gray-brown back. The wing coverts are dusky with two whitish wing bars. It has a well-developed bushy crest with a white crown patch, but the white on the crown is variable and some birds have a small and concealed white crown. It has pale lores and thin eye-ring. The base of the lower mandible is yellow-orange. The throat and breast are grayish grading to yellow towards the belly. It forages in semi-open habitats where its distinctive voice is diagnostic. It is similar to the Mottle-backed Elaenia and Lesser Elaenia but is distinguished by having a plain gray-olive back and pale lores. Voice should be considered in identifying members of the genus Elaenia.

Status: The Yellow-bellied Elaenia is generally fairly common but local. It also occurs in Co, Ec, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Fío-Fío de Vientre Amarillo.

Sub-species: Yellow-bellied Elaenia (Elaenia flavogaster flavogaster), (Thunberg), 1822.  Colombia, Venezuela (including Margarita I and Patos I), Trinidad, Tobago, S Lesser Antilles (the Grenadines, Grenada), the Guianan Shield, Brazil (S, except in W & C Amazonas, to Rio Grande do Sul), SE Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and NE Argentina.
(Elaenia flavogaster semipagana), P. L. Sclater, 1862.  extreme SW Colombia, W & S Ecuador (including Puná I) and interior NW Peru.

Meaning of Name: Elaenia: Gr. elaineos= of olive-oil, oleaginous. flavogaster: L. flavus= yellow, golden-yellow and gaster, gasteris= belly.

See more of the Family Tyrannidae