3 SE Brazil Flycatchers - any ideas please? (1 Viewer)

Getting to the end of my problematic birds from a recent trip to Brazil. This time here's three flycatchers I need help with.

Despite much searching, I still have absolutely no idea what flycatcher 1 is having not found anything that looks remotely like it on the web or in field guides or Ridgely and Tudor (if indeed it is a flycatcher). This bird was certainly behaving like a flycatcher; just flying up catching flies and returning to the same perch.

After much research, I believe flycatcher 2 may be a rough legged tyrannulet but have deduced this from a picture of a planalto tyrannulet and then a written description of the differences. I have yet to even find another image of this species.

I believe flycatcher 3 is just a pale yellow-bellied elaenia but as always would appreciate any input.

cheers

Nick

I think 1 is something that caught me out a bit owing to the southeast Brazilian race being illustrated in most books. I reckon it's a Tropical Pewee.

I might leave the others to Rasmus!

Have a look at Arthur Grosset's pictures and text for Tropical Pewee:

http://www.arthurgrosset.com/sabirds/tropicalpewee.html

Thanks Andrew,

It's funny you suggest Tropical Pewee because, after all my searching, that was the only bird that I faintly considered it might be, but was put off by the darkish breast. I hadn't seen the pictures on Arthur grosset's site (don't know why I didn't go there myself - I've looked at just about every other bird on his site) and his bird shows much darker underparts, similar to my photo, than any of the other pictures and illustrations I've seen.

Thanks for your help

Nick

There's an excellent paper on the identification of Atlantic forest tyrannulets in Cotinga 10: 82-95. (I say 'excellent' but admit to being biased as I'm one of the authors...). You can get hold of this and other Cotinga back issues at a specially reduced price by emailing [email protected].

Bird 2 looks like a Rough-leg to me. Bill structure reduces the field to that sp or Planalto. Pro Rough-leg features: It appears to have a long primary extension and pink base (at least) to the lower mandible. Can't see the tertial type pattern, and the angle of the (excellent) photos means I can't see whether it has a shorter tail. Bulging fore super looks good too.

James

The first is indeed a Tropical Pewee. The third is likely a Yellow-bellied, but I'd only be willing to give it 95% certainty from the available photo. Wrong genus on the second, which is a Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulet. A number of features excludes Rough-legged: Bill too long and thin (notice that the Rough-legged is even thicker-billed than the other Phyllomyias). Other things to notice are the relatively strong wing-bars (of the Brazilian Phyllomyias, I've only ever seen Greenish with comparably strong wing-bars, and Rough-legged is pretty much in the opposite end of the scale) and the relatively long, cocked tail. The fact that the tail is cocked is of course only a relatively reliable feature for separating Phyllomyias and Phylloscartes if individuals are observed to do so (or vice versa) consistently, and exceptions to the rule exists (a few Phylloscartes only infrequently cock their tail). Anyhow, even if disregarding the apparently cocked tail, the remaining features leads to a relatively straight forward ID (ok, perhaps not, but still easier than a number of other species, where you often have to rely on minor details in colour hues, etc). In general, I'd suggest people don't always rely on the ID's given on aves.brasil, but in this case they do have a photo of the "real thing", a Rough-legged:

http://www.aves.brasil.nom.br/servl.../photo/search/doShowOnePhoto.jsp&photoId=5176

Found a better version where the wing are easier to see. Reading the text below, it is also evident the photographer got a bit of help with the identification of this potentially confusing tyrannulet by one of the top Brazilian ornithologists; José Fernando Pacheco (think Scytalopus pachecoi):
http://jquental.multiply.com/photos/photo/140/46

For people familiar with Greenish and Planalto the first thing you'll be struck by is how heavy the bill is. Compared to the various Phylloscartes the difference is even more striking. A final note: Anybody reading this and planning to visit south-eastern Brazil should take a look at the Mottle-cheeked and remember as much as possible. It is among the commonest tyrannulets at many birding localities in south-eastern Brazil - and, perhaps not surprisingly, also among the species that most often cause confusion. Reading the article from Cotinga #10 - as referred to in the previous post - is absolutely recommendable, too.

Thanks again for all the help.

I've got another couple of images of the problematic flycatcher and having compared these to the rough legged image, I think I would agree that this is a mottle-cheeked. I also found another reasonable good image of a mottle cheeked at:

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?i...e+cheeked+tyrannulet&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N

I've posted one of the other images I have which is the best version of the bill (even though it is slightly hidden at its tip) and I think if you compare this to the other m-c and r-l images you can clearly see the bird has the same bill as the m-c. On the simon knight image you can also just about make out the pink base to the mandible which you can clearly also see on my image.

A quick question I should raise is to ask is it worth posting some of my images somewhere to help other people with IDs. From researching myself it is very difficult to find good images on the web of a lot of the birds I saw on my recent trip and i have over a thousand pics that i brought back. Any suggestions would be welcome (not that I need to post my twenty blue dacnis pics to help people with IDs).

Not that anybody would need help with such images but I got these images of a red rumped warbling finch immediately before this flycatcher and then below the flycatcher was a plovercrest feeding. I didn't have to move for all three birds. Considering I was just packing up my photo bag after seeing the Itatiaia thistletail from the same spot and then got views of two blackish rails when I got back to my car about 50 meters away, it was about the best five minutes birding I had on my trip!

Nick Brooks said:

A quick question I should raise is to ask is it worth posting some of my images somewhere to help other people with IDs. From researching myself it is very difficult to find good images on the web of a lot of the birds I saw on my recent trip and i have over a thousand pics that i brought back. Any suggestions would be welcome (not that I need to post my twenty blue dacnis pics to help people with IDs).

Click to expand...

That certainly would be a good idea (esp. for various Furnariidae & Tyrannidae, where people often have probs with the identification). There are numerous possibilities, but no collected source (similar to AfBID for Africa, OBI for Asia and aviceda for Australia) exists. So far, the nearest that exists for South America is aves.brazil (http://www.aves.brasil.nom.br/index.jsp) for Brazil, but it suffers from a few issues: A number of mistaken ID's (I've sometimes forwarded a few corrections, but when dealing with the most basic, e.g. Azure-shouldered/Sayaca Tanager, I just don't have the time), lack of an easy search function (it is based on families as per CBRO, which generally are the most correct as per current knowledge, but not easy to deal with for people without a fair level of insight into Neotropical taxonomy), and the fact that it remains rather unknown to birders outside Brazil. Otherwise, there's all the usual possibilities; flickr, pbase, mangoverde and - of course - the BirdForum gallery.

Nick Brooks said:

...red rumped warbling finch...

Click to expand...

Recently (finally!) proposed split. It's in Portugues, but for people with a basic knowledge of Spanish, reading Portugues is fairly straight forward. In any case there's a brief English abstract:

http://www.ararajuba.org.br/sbo/ararajuba/artigos/Volume151/ara151art10.pdf

Following this split, the handsome northern taxon shown on your photo would become the Buff-throated Warbling-finch (Poospiza lateralis)

Re the red-rumped warbling finch - Just as i think I'm actually able to identify a Brazillian bird, someone goes behind my back and changes its name!

Your images would definitely be welcome in the gallery: only a single image is found in the gallery of Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulet!

Niels