Yellow-olive Flycatcher (Tolmomyias sulphurescens)

Identification & Behavior: ~13 cm (5.1 in). The Yellow-Olive Flycatcher (aka, Yellow-olive Flatbill) exhibits plumage variation throughout its range. All forms have a gray crown and yellow-olive mantle with wing coverts and flight feathers margined with yellow or olive in the subspecies insignis. The underparts are mostly yellow with a whitish throat. The bill is flat, wide at the base, and bicolored. Some forms have a pale broken eye-ring and brown iris. It has a dusky ear patch, which is well developed in birds of northwest Peru. It favors forest edges and second growth. In Amazonia, it appears to be associated with the Amazon and Ucayali Rivers. In northwest Peru is associated with humid and semi-deciduous forests. In Amazonia, it is similar to the Yellow-margined flycatcher and Gray-crowned Flycatcher but is distinguished by habitat type and voice. In northwest Peru, it is similar to the Pacific Elaenia but is distinguished by a more horizontal posture and flat and bicolored bill.

Status: The Yellow-Olive Flycatcher is common to fairly common but local in disjunct populations in Amazonia, the east slope of the Andes, northwest Peru, and extreme southeast Peru. Andean populations are known to range between 1000-2400 m. It also occurs in Co, Ec, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Pico-Ancho Azufrado.

Sub-species: Yellow-olive Flycatcher (Tolmomyias sulphurescens aequatorialis), (Berlepsch and Taczanowski) 1884.  W Ecuador and NW Peru (Tumbes, Piura).
(Tolmomyias sulphurescens peruvianus), (Taczanowski), 1875.  SE Ecuador and N & C Peru (Amazonas, S San Martín, E Pasco, Junín).
(Tolmomyias sulphurescens insignis), J. T. Zimmer, 1939.  NE Peru (lower R Ucayali, in Loreto) and NW Brazil (R Juruá E to R Jamundá and R Madeira).
(Tolmomyias sulphurescens inornatus), J. T. Zimmer, 1939.  SE Peru (N Puno).

Meaning of Name: Tolmomyias: Gr. tolma, tolmes= courage, boldness muia= fly and piazo= to seize, myias= flycatcher. sulphurescens: L. sulphur, sulphuris= sulphur, sulphurescens, sulphurescentis= becoming sulphurous.

See more of the Family Tyrannidae