The eye-ringed tody-tyrant (''Hemitriccus orbitatus'') 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 the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The eye-ringed tody-tyrant has a complicated taxonomic history. It was originally described in 1831 as ''Euscarthmornis orbitatus''. In part of the twentieth century it was assigned to genus ''Idioptilon''. Both ''Euscarthmornis'' and ''Idioptilon'' were eventually merged into ''Hemitriccus''.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 18 November 2024. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved November 26, 2024 The eye-ringed tody-tyrant 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 eye-ringed tody-tyrant is long and weighs . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a dark olive crown. They have white spot above their lores and a wide white

eye-ring The eye-ring of a bird is a ring of tiny feathers that surrounds the orbital ring, a ring of bare skin immediately surrounding a bird's eye. The eye-ring is often decorative, and its colour may contrast with adjoining plumage. The ring of feather ...

. Their back and rump are dark olive. Their wings are olive with wide white edges on the innermost flight feathers. Their tail is dusky olive. Their throat is grayish white with olive streaks, their breast has an olive wash with darker olive streaks, and the rest of their underparts are yellow. They have a dark brown iris, a gray maxilla, a pale

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 ...

, and light gray legs and feet.Clock, B. M. (2020). Eye-ringed Tody-Tyrant (''Hemitriccus orbitatus''), 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.erttyr1.01 retrieved January 23, 2025

Distribution and habitat

The eye-ringed tody-tyrant is found in southeastern Brazil between eastern

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

and Espírito Santo to northeastern

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

. It is a bird of the Atlantic Forest, inhabiting humid primary and secondary forest. In elevation it mostly occurs from sea level to but is occasionally found as high as .

Behavior

Movement

The eye-ringed tody-tyrant is a year-round resident.

Feeding

The eye-ringed tody-tyrant feeds on insects. It typically forages singly or in pairs, mostly in the forest interior between its understory and mid-story. It takes most of its prey using short upward sallies from a perch to grab it from the underside of leaves.

Breeding

The eye-ringed tody-tyrants nest has not been formally described but is reported as being a hanging "purse" or in one case a non-hanging ball. The clutch size is reported as two eggs. The species' breeding season, incubation period, time to fledging, and details of parental care are not known.

Vocalization

The eye-ringed tody-tyrant's song is a "very high, slightly lowered, 'drrrih' ".

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 ...

originally in 1988 assessed the eye-ringed tody-tyrant as Near Threatened but in February 2024 revised it to being of Least Concern. Its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. "Current key threats are urbanisation, industrialisation, agricultural expansion, mining, colonisation and associated road-building. However, the species can be found in secondary forests and is tolerant to certain environmental changes." It is considered locally uncommon to fairly common and occurs in some protected areas. However, "less than 20% of original Atlantic Forest sintact; remaining lowland forests continue to be cleared".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1263854 Birds of the Atlantic Forest Hemitriccus Endemic birds of Brazil Birds described in 1831 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot