The long-tailed silky-flycatcher (''Ptiliogonys caudatus'') is a

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 ...

that occurs only in the mountains of

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

and western

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 ...

, usually from 1,850 m altitude to the timberline. It is a thrush-sized species, weighing about 37 g. The

silky-flycatcher The silky-flycatchers are a small family, Ptiliogonatidae, of passerine birds. The family contains only four species in three genera. They were formerly lumped with waxwings and hypocolius in the family Bombycillidae, and they are listed in that ...

s are related to

waxwing The waxwings are three species of passerine birds classified in the genus ''Bombycilla''. They are pinkish-brown and pale grey with distinctive smooth plumage in which many body feathers are not individually visible, a black and white eyestripe, ...

s, and like that group, they have soft silky plumage. The habitat of this bird is mountain forests, where the breeding pair builds a neat cup of

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

2 to 18 m above ground in a tree, sometimes in loose colonies. The female lays two brown-and-lilac-blotched grey eggs, which are incubated by both adults. The young fledge 18 to 25 days after hatching and are fed by both parents. The male long-tailed silky-flycatcher is 24 cm long and has a pale grey forehead. The rest of the crested head, neck, throat, and lower belly are yellow. The back, lower breast, and upper belly are blue-grey, and the flight feathers and long pointed tail are black. The outer tail feathers are spotted with white. The female is 21 cm long and generally duller than the male, with a darker grey forehead, olive body plumage, and a shorter, duller black tail. Immatures are similar to adults, but the central tail feathers are shorter and the white spotting on the outer tail is indistinct. This species forages in small flocks when not breeding, fly-catching for

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, or taking small fruits, especially

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate parasite, obligate parasitic plant, hemiparasitic plants in the Order (biology), order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they ...

. Long-tailed silky-flycatchers often perch prominently on high, exposed twigs. The call of the long-tailed silky-flycatcher is a repeated ''chee-chip''. This species is a host to the biting louse, ''

Brueelia ptilogonis ''Brueelia'' (formerly spelled ''Brüelia'') is a genus of bird lice in the family Philopteridae that infest Passerine (perching) birds. Lice in ''Brueelia'' are usually host specific, with more than 85% of described species each found on a sin ...

''.

Gallery

File:Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher.jpg, In Parque Nacional Los Quetzales, Costa Rica, 21 March 2024. File:Ptilogonys caudatus.jpg, Long-tailed silky-flycatcher in

File:PtilogonysCaudataSmit.jpg, Illustration by Joseph Smit (1869)

References

* Stiles and Skutch, ''A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica''

External links

Image

{{Taxonbar, from=Q27075344

long-tailed silky-flycatcher The long-tailed silky-flycatcher (''Ptiliogonys caudatus'') is a passerine bird that occurs only in the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama, usually from 1,850 m altitude to the timberline. It is a thrush (bird), thrush-sized species, weig ...

Endemic birds of the Talamancan montane forests