• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Tropical Gnatcatcher - BirdForum Opus

Subspecies plumbiceps
Photo © by NJ Larsen
El Camarones, Guajira, Colombia, 28 August 2023
Polioptila plumbea

Identification

Photo by Francisco Paludo
Araripe, CE, Brazil, July 2017

10-12.7 cm (4-5 in)

  • Black crown, neck sides and stripe behind the eye
  • Blue-grey upperparts
  • Black wings with white edging on the tertials
  • Long, thin black tail with narrow white tips and edges
  • White face and belly
  • Pale grey underparts

Female: similar to the male, but with a dark grey, rather than black, crown.
Young birds have a brown tinge to the upperparts and face, and whiter underparts.

Variation

Maranon Gnatcatcher
Photo by WilsonDiaz
Fundo Gotas de Agua, Maranon valley, Peru, May 2013

Some subspecies has the cap reaching down to the eye both in front and behind, others have a white lore and arch above the eye, reaching a thin black line going backwards from the eye to the cap. The subspecies with the larger cap (reaching further down in front of the eye) are found in the north and northeast of the range as well as in the Marañón valley of Peru.

Distribution

South America: Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, all east of the Andes.

Taxonomy

White-lored Gnatcatcher has previously been included within Tropical Gnatcatcher but the split seems to be widely accepted. Likewise, White-browed Gnatcatcher has recently been split from this species.

Subspecies

This species currently has about seven subspecies[1].

  • P. p. anteocularis: North Colombia (upper Magdalena Valley)
  • P. p. maior: Tropical eastern Peru (upper Río Marañón) from Piura to La Libertad
  • P. p. plumbiceps: East slope of Andes of northern Colombia to northern Venezuela; Isla Margarita
  • P. p. innotata: Extreme eastern Colombia to southern Venezuela and extreme northern Brazil
  • P. p. plumbea: The Guianas and north-eastern Brazil (Rio Tapajós to northern Maranhão)
  • P. p. parvirostris: Western Amazonia, from southern Colombia south to southeastern Peru (Madre de Dios) and east to adjacent Brazil (Acre and western Amazonas)
  • P. p. atricapilla: North East Brazil (Maranhão to Piauí, Ceará, Pernambuco and Bahia)

Habitat

Lowlands and foothills from sea level to about 1500 m. They occupy a wide of habitats from canopy of forests, forest edges, overgrown pastures and plantations etc.

Behaviour

Diet

Their main diet consists of small arthropods and spiders.

Breeding

The nest is a small cup made from vegetable fibres. The clutch consists of 2-3 white eggs with brown spots.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Avibase
  3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Sept 2017)
  4. Schulenberg, T. S. & Stotz, D. F. & Lane, D. F. & O'Neill, J. P. & Parker III, T. A. & Egg, A. B. (2010). Birds of Peru: Revised and Updated Edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691130231
  5. Hilty, S.L. 2021. Birds of Colombia. Lynx and Birdlife International Field Guides, Lynx Editions, Barcelona. ISBN 978-84-16728-24-4
  6. The Beauty of Birds

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1

Back
Top