The crested doradito (''Pseudocolopteryx sclateri'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in subfamily Elaeniinae of family

Tyrannidae The tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) comprise a Family (biology), family of passerine birds which is found virtually throughout North America, North and South America. It is the world's largest family of birds, with more than 400 species, and is ...

, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, possibly in

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

, and as a

vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, G. Del-Rio, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 28 September 2024. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved September 29, 2024

Taxonomy and systematics

The crested doradito is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

Description

The crested doradito is long and weighs . Both sexes have a shaggy crest. Adult males have a mostly pale olive head, upperparts, and tail. Their crown is blackish with yellowish white edges on the feathers and a partially hidden yellow stripe in the middle. Their cheeks are dusky, and their back has subtle dusky streaks. Their wings are pale olive with dull whitish edges on the flight feathers and wing

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

; the last show as two

wing bar The following is a glossary of common English language terms used in the description of birds—warm-blooded vertebrates of the class Aves and the only living dinosaurs. Birds, who have and the ability to (except for the approximately 60 ext ...

s. Their throat and underparts are bright yellow. Adult females have a paler head than males, wider pale-yellow edges on the crown feathers, and a very faint pale yellow

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...

. Their underparts are a paler yellow than the male's. Both sexes have a dark brown iris and black legs and feet with a long

hallux Toes are the digits of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being ''digitigrade''. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being ''plantigrade''; ...

. Males have a slender, black, warbler-like bill; females' bills have a black

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

like the males' and a pinkish-orange

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

. Juveniles are similar to adult females, but their crest has less black and more ochre, and their underparts are very pale.Bostwick, K. (2020). Crested Doradito (''Pseudocolopteryx sclateri''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.credor1.01 retrieved October 22, 2024

Distribution and habitat

The crested doradito has a highly

disjunct distribution In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...

. Its largest single range is from eastern Bolivia south though southwestern Brazil and Paraguay into northeastern Argentina and Uruguay. There are isolated populations elsewhere in Bolivia and in Venezuela (mostly

Falcón Falcón State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. The state capital is Coro, Venezuela, Coro. The state was named after Juan Crisóstomo Falcón. History Early history Present day Falcón State was first explored ...

), Guyana, and in several parts of Brazil. It has occurred as a vagrant on Trinidad. The South American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

has unconfirmed sight records in French Guiana and therefore lists the species as hypothetical in that country. The species inhabits reed beds, marshes, and tall grassy areas near water. In elevation it reaches above sea level though only in Venezuela.

Behavior

Movement

Though the crested doradito was previously thought to be migratory, it is now believed to be a year-round resident.

Feeding

The crested doradito's diet has not been detailed but is known to include insects and spiders. It typically forages in pairs or small family groups. It feeds in vegetation in marshes and along their borders, mostly by gleaning vegetation while perched, and often clinging sideways to sedge or reed stems to feed.

Breeding

The crested doradito breeds between September and January in the southern parts of its range. In Venezuela its season appears to include June or July. The few known nests were cups made variously of grasses, sedge stems, and thin rootlets, sometimes also including spider egg cases and insect cocoons as a lining or on the outside. They were attached to reed or sedge stems over water. In the south the clutch is two eggs. The clutch size elsewhere, incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.

Vocalization

As of late 2024

xeno-canto xeno-canto is a citizen science project and repository in which volunteers record, upload and annotate recordings of bird calls and sounds of orthoptera and bats. Since it began in 2005, it has collected over 575,000 sound recordings from more th ...

had no recordings of crested doradito vocalizations from Venezuela or Guayana. In the south the species' song is a "very high, liquid 'wic-wic-wic- -" and its call a "mellow wik wik". On Trinidad its song has been described as "a squeaky ''tsik-tsik-tsee-lee''" and its call "a high, thin, soft ''sik''".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the crested doradito as being of Least Concern. It has a large range; its population size is not known and is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is "apparently very local, but sometimes quite common" and occurs in a few protected areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q908289 crested doradito Birds of South America crested doradito Taxonomy articles created by Polbot