Rufous-crowned Tody-Flycatcher Poecilotriccus ruficeps Scientific name definitions

The Rufous-crowned Tody-Flycatcher is a small songbird of montane northwestern South America.  Found in overgrown clearings and edge habitat around humid forest from 1500 to 2500 meters in elevation, the species ranges from western Venezuela south to extreme northern Peru. This striking flycatcher is tiny with a rufous crown, olive back, blackish wings with two yellow wingbars and yellow tertial edges, a grayish-white collar, rusty face, and black auricular border.  Rufous-crowned Tody-Flycatcher can be detected by its quiet, stuttering calls and is typically found independent of mixed foraging flocks.

9–10·2 cm; 6·6 g. Nominate race has distinctive bright rufous crown and grey nape separated by black line which connects with thin black malar stripe; white to buffy supraloral area and and cheek separated by thin black eyestripe; olive upperparts; black wings, two fairly narrow yellow wingbars, yellowish-white edges of remiges and tertials; olive-brown tail; throat and upper breast buffy whitish, diffuse dusky breastband, remaining underparts bright yellow; iris dark brown; bill black; legs grey. Sexes alike. Juvenile has paler throat than adult. Race rufigenis has malar streak indistinct or lacking; peruvianus has more pronounced black facial markings; <em>melanomystax</em> has whitish cheeks .

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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.

Insectivore. Feeds alone, in pairs or in family groups, rarely in mixed-species flocks. Uses short forward or upward sallies to catch insects in dense vegetation close to ground.

Call low-pitched flat “chak”, “tttrew”, “patreer-pít” or “pip-prrrrrr”, last note sometimes omitted; “tick-trrrrt” during foraging. Song usually a series of sputters, e.g. “pa-treer-pit-pit-pit”, that of melanomystax described as gravelly “stick-di-dik”.