Yungas Tody-Tyrant Hemitriccus spodiops Scientific name definitions

This Bolivian endemic, which is confined to central regions of the country, in the departments of La Paz, Cochabamba, and western Santa Cruz, is sometimes united with the Amazonian-distributed Snethlage’s Tody-Tyrant (Hemitriccus minor) in the separate genus Snethlagea, based on their unusual, shared, broad-based bills and large, rounded nostrils. The Yungas Tody-Tyrant is found in lower montane forest at altitudes of 800 to 2450 m, although it is generally more numerous within the lower half of this range, and it typically forages for insects, alone, in the undergrowth. Most aspects of the species’ biology are still unknown, but it is usually locally common, and is reasonably easily located given knowledge of its harsh-trilled song, which recalls that of Helmeted Pygmy-Tyrant (Lophotriccus pileatus) more than its congenerics.

11 cm; 6·9–7·5 g. Bill quite broad-based, with unusually large, rounded nostrils. Crown and upperparts are dark olive-green, crown with elongated feathers forming short crest; lores grayish-buff; wings with two indistinct yellowish olive wingbars; throat and breast grayish olive with indistinct whitish streaking, lower belly clear yellowish-white; iris pale yellow; bill blackish; tarsi pinkish gray to pinkish. Sexes alike.

E slope of Andes in extreme SE Peru (S Puno) and W & C Bolivia (La Paz, Cochabamba, W Santa Cruz).