- Todirostrum cinereum
Identification
9.5-10.2 cm
- Dark olive-green upperparts
- Yellow underparts
- Black head
- Dark grey nape
- Black wings
- 2 yellow wing bars
- Black tail; white tipped; long
- Pale iris
- Straight black bill
Sexes similar
Juvenile: greyer upper head, buff wing markings, paler underparts
On some birds, the white in the eye is more brownish-yellow and quite inconspicuous.
Similar Species
Some individuals will show yellow lores and care must be taken to distinguish from Yellow-lored Tody Flycatcher. A distinct fieldmark for this species is white tips to outer rectrices.[4]
Distribution
Found from Mexico through Central America to northern half of South America, northwestern Peru, eastern Bolivia and southern Brazil.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
There are eight subspecies[1]:
- T. c. virididorsale:
- Tropical southern Mexico (Veracruz and n Oaxaca)
- T. c. finitimum:
- Tropical southern Mexico (Tabasco and Chiapas) to north-western Costa Rica
- T. c. wetmorei:
- Tropical central and eastern Costa Rica and Panama
- T. c. sclateri:
- T. c. cinereum:
- T. c. peruanum:
- Eastern Ecuador and eastern Peru (south to Cuzco)
- T. c. coloreum:
- T. c. cearae:
- North-eastern Brazil (eastern Pará to Piauí, Ceará, Alagoas and northern Bahia)
Habitat
Forests, plantations, shrubby areas and gardens.
Behaviour
Both sexes build the pouch shaped nest. The 2 white eggs are incubated by the female for 15-16 days.
References
- Clements, JF. 2010. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2010. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.5.xls/view
- Wikipedia
- Arthur Grosset
- Thread discussing differences between Common and Yellow-lored Tody-Flycatchers
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Common Tody-Flycatcher. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 8 February 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Common_Tody-Flycatcher
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1