Painted Tody-Flycatcher Todirostrum pictum Scientific name definitions

Restricted to the Guianan Shield, from southeast Venezuela, through the Guianas and into northern Brazil, the Painted Tody-Flycatcher is a striking little bird, if seen well. The head is black, the underparts yellow with black spotting, the upperparts largely green with yellow wing edgings, while the species also has a white throat and lores, and striking yellow irides. It is best located by voice as the species prefers the canopy of tall humid forest and second growth, and has been found to at least 400 m. Because of its canopy-dwelling habits, which make it easily overlooked, little information has been published concerning the Painted Tody-Flycatcher’s ecology, although those aspects that are known appear similar to those of other tody-flycatchers. The nest is a pendent pouch-like structure sited high up, but unsurprisingly the eggs have yet to be described.

9–10·2 cm; 6–8 g. Has glossy black head , white supraloral spot , long white submoustachial stripe; small yellow neckband, olive back and rump; wings black, two yellow wingbars, yellow feather edges; tail black, olive outer edges; throat whitish with black streaks, bright yellow underparts , black streaks on upper breast; iris dark brown or yellow; bill black; legs blackish. Sexes alike. Juvenile undescribed.

Arthropods, including e.g. flies (Diptera). Forages alone or in pairs, rarely with mixed-species flocks, in high outer-canopy foliage and along forest edges. Makes short forward and upward sallies.

Call “chevik” or “pi-pik”; song 8–12 sharp, piercing “peek” notes at c. 2 per second; also a penetrating whistle, “teeng-teeng-teeng-teeng”.

Oct in Surinam. Nest built by both sexes, an untidy elongated pouch with dangling “tail” and side entrance, in one case suspended from drooping branch high in garden tree near wasp (Hymenoptera) nest; nests usually sited higher up than those of congeners. Apparently no other relevant information.