Northern Scrub-Flycatcher Sublegatus arenarum Scientific name definitions

Northern Scrub-Flycatcher is a small songbird of southern Central American and northern South America.  The species inhabits mangroves and open woodland below 500 meters in elevation in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, and several Caribbean islands.  It is olive above with a whitish supercilium, gray throat and upper breast, yellow belly, blackish wings with buff edging.  The Northern Scrub-Flycatcher is typically quiet and shy, but occasionally gives a thin, whistled call.  The species overlaps the similar Amazonian Scurb-Flycatcher in Venezuela and the Guianas.

13–15 cm; 10·5–15 g. Nominate race has narrow whitish supercilium, greyish-brown crown and upperparts; wings dusky grey, paler greyish to whitish wingbars and flight-feather edges; tail dusky, tips of fresh rectrices whitish; chin whitish, throat and chest pale grey, abdomen medium yellow; iris dark brown; bill short, stubby, black; legs grey. Separated from congeners by comparatively longer bill, pale grey breast sharply demarcated from bright yellow belly and abdomen. Sexes alike, female on average smaller than male. Juvenile resembles adult. Races differ only very slightly: glaber is larger than nominate, darker olive-brown above, crown feathers somewhat elongated and slightly darker than back, wingbars duller; atrirostris differs from previous in paler, more grey-brown upperparts, more conspicuous white wingbars, duller white throat, paler grey breast and flanks; pallens is similar to last but even paler, more grey above, throat and breast whiter, also slightly smaller; tortugensis is even whiter on throat and possibly smaller than previous; orinocensis is palest and smallest, with more sharply defined pale wingbars and edges of remiges.

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Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Mangroves and adjacent vegetation, including scrubby second growth. In N Venezuela (glaber) found in mangroves, open dry scrub, cactus and thorn woodlands, and desert areas; atrirostris and orinocensis mainly in scrubby second growth and dry woodland. Sea-level to 600 m.

Resident.

Food arthropods, including ants (Hymentoptera), caterpillars (Lepidoptera), small beetles (Coleoptera); small berries also frequently taken. Forages inconspicuously in shrubs and small trees, perching upright with tail vertically downwards; makes long pauses and peering head movements; food items obtained by outward hover-gleans to vegetation and short aerial sallies.

Dawn song a loud, repeated “pfweéé”; also widely spaced “phew!-dit” shortly after dawn; contact call a squeaky “peee” (as produced by squeezing a rubber toy), often given in couplets with mate.

Mar–Jun; stub-tailed young in Aug, Colombia. Nest a simple cup, 7·5 cm × 4 cm, placed 2–6 m up in fork of small tree. Clutch 2 eggs; incubation period at least 14 days, female fed on nest by male; no information on nestling period.

Not globally threatened. Uncommon to locally fairly common. In Panama, most abundant near coast and fairly common on several islands and in the Tocumen area; especially common in Salamanca National Park, in Colombia, and occurs also in Carara Biological Reserve, in Costa Rica. Populations inhabiting second growth and open, dry woodland may presumably benefit from degradation of primary forest; those in mangroves more at risk as a result of widespread destruction of this habitat.