Black-capped Hemispingus - BirdForum Opus

Photo by edenwatcher
Tapichalaca, Ecuador, March 2006

Kleinothraupis atropileus

Hemispingus atropileus

Identification

15-16cm.

• Sooty crown and side of head
• Long, narrow buff-white supercilium from nostril to nape
• Brownish-olive upperparts
• Dull greyish-olive tail
• Bright ochre-yellow throat and foreneck
• Olive-yellow rest of underparts
• Reddish-brown eye

Sexes similar. Immatures similar but duller.

Distribution

South America: found in Colombia, south-western Venezuela, Ecuador, and northernmost Peru.
Locally common in its range.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species^[1].

White-browed Hemispingus and Orange-browed Hemispingus have been split from Black-capped Hemispingus, and these three plus Parodi's Hemispingus have been seen as a superspecies³.
Until recently placed in the genus Hemispingus.

Habitat

Moist, dense montane forests, especially with bamboo.
Recorded at 1800 - 3700 m asl.

Behaviour

Feeds on insects and seeds.
Forages in pairs or small groups in single-species flocks and in mixed-species flocks together with Basileuterus-Warblers and other Tanagers.
Forages actively near the ground or in understory.
No information about breeding.
A resident species.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2011. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 16: Tanagers to New World Blackbirds. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553781
3. SACC baseline
4. Hilty, S. (2020). Black-capped Hemispingus (Kleinothraupis atropileus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.blchem1.01

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Black-capped Hemispingus. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 17 March 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Black-capped_Hemispingus

External Links

Search for photos of Black-capped Hemispingus in the gallery

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.