Rufous-winged Tyrannulet Mecocerculus calopterus Scientific name definitions

Rufous-winged Tyrannulet is a surprisingly distinctive tyrannulet of montane northwestern South America. Distributed from central Ecuador south into northwestern Peru, it inhabits forest canopy and edge habitats between 400 and 1500 meters in elevation. The species is olive above and white below with a dark gray head, white supercilium, dark gray cheeks, and black wings with off-white wing bars, obvious rufous edging on the flight feathers, and white outer tail feathers. Rufous-winged Tyrannulet is often found in pairs and sometimes forages within mixed flocks.

11 cm; 10–11 g. Small parulid-like tyrannulet with rufous on flight-feathers. Has conspicuous white super­cilium , broad black line through eye and auriculars, whitish lower face bordered posteriorly by blackish auricular crescent; dark grey crown, contrasting bright greenish-olive upperparts; wings dark dusky, two pure white wingbars , bright rufous edges of flight-feathers (except near base), edges of innermost and outermost remiges yellow; tail dusky olive, with white on two outer pairs; throat and breast pale greyish-white, belly whitish, undertail-coverts pale yellow; iris brown; bill long, thin, black; legs grey. Sexes alike. Juvenile undescribed.

Andes of W & SE Ecuador (S from Imbabura and Zamora-Chinchipe) and N Peru (S to Lambayeque and San Martín).

Husky 2-note call, “pur-chee”  , sometimes with additional notes  , “pur-chee, chi-chi-chu”, also fast, descending series of emphatic notes, “kew-ki-ke-ke-ku-ku”.