The lesser greenlet (''Pachysylvia decurtata'') is a small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

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 vireo family. It breeds from northeastern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

south to western

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. This is a common species of lowlands and foothills up to altitude, where it inhabits forest canopy and edges, and the crowns of trees in tall second growth or semi-open areas. The nest is a deep cup of dead leaves and spiderwebs attached by the rim to branches high in a tree. The normal clutch is two brown-marked white eggs. The adult lesser greenlet is in length and weighs . It has olive-green upperparts and a pale grey head with a white eye ring. The underparts are white with a yellow tinge to the breast and some olive on the flanks. Young birds are duller and brown above, and have a buff tone to the sides of the head and the breast. There are two races. Nominate ''H. d. decurtatus'' which breeds from central

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

southwards has a green crown to the head, and grey-crowned ''H. d. minor'' occupies the northern part of the bird's range. The latter subspecies was formerly given species status as the Grey-crowned Greenlet (''H. minor'') but the two forms interbreed extensively in central Panama and are now considered to be conspecific. Lesser greenlets feed on

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

s and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s gleaned from tree foliage, They also eat small fruits and seeds. They will join

mixed-species feeding flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These ar ...

s, and often accompany gnatcatchers, warblers and

honeycreeper The true honeycreepers form a genus ''Cyanerpes'' of small birds in the tanager family Thraupidae. They are found in the tropical New World from Mexico south to Brazil. They occur in the forest canopy, and, as the name implies, they are specialis ...

s. The lesser greenlet has a nasal ' call and the song is a whistled ', slower and more melodious than that of the yellow-green vireo.

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* * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2667725 lesser greenlet Birds of Central America Birds of Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena lesser greenlet lesser greenlet

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