The restinga tyrannulet (''Phylloscartes kronei'') 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 (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 flycatcher The tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) comprise a family of passerine birds which is found virtually throughout North and South America. It is the world's largest family of birds, with more than 400 species, and is the most diverse avian family i ...

s. 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 restinga tyrannulet 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 ...

. The first known specimen of the restinga tyrannulet was collected in 1898 but was misidentified as a

mottle-cheeked tyrannulet The mottle-cheeked tyrannulet (''Phylloscartes ventralis'') is a generally common, small species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Taxonomy and sys ...

(''P. ventralis''). Willis and Oniki corrected the error in their

formal description A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

of the new species. They assigned the

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''kronei'' in honor of Ricardo Krone, the Brazilian zoologist who collected the 1898 specimen.

Description

The restinga tyrannulet is about long and weighs . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a thin 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 ...

, a yellow broken

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 ...

, and a dusky line through the eye that continues to the rear and sweeps around the mottled dusky and yellowish ear

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 ...

. Their crown, nape, back, and rump are greenish olive that is slightly browner on the crown. Their wings are dusky with yellowish outer webs on the flight feathers. Their wing

have yellow tips that form 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 tail is dusky olive with thin greenish edges on the feathers. Their chin and throat are pale yellow. The rest of their underparts are medium yellow that is brightest on the belly and has faint greenish mottling on the breast and flanks. Both sexes have a brown iris, a black bill with a pale base to the

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 gray legs and feet.Gussoni, C. O. (2024). Restinga Tyrannulet (''Phylloscartes kronei''), version 3.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, B. K. Keeney, and S. M. Billerman, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.restyr1.03 retrieved December 20, 2024

Distribution and habitat

The restinga tyrannulet is found in southeastern Brazil along a narrow coastal band from the floodplain of the Ribeira River in southern

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

state south into 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 ...

. Its primary habitat is ''

restinga Restingas () are a distinct type of coastal tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest in eastern Brazil. They form on sandy, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils, and are characterized by medium-sized trees and shrubs adapted to the drier and n ...

'', which is low-stature woodlands on coastal sand ridges. It also occurs in adjacent

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zo ...

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

, and riverside forest. In elevation it is found almost entirely very near sea level but locally occurs as high as .

Behavior

Movement

The restinga tyrannulet is a year-round resident.

Feeding

The restinga tyrannulet feeds primarily on

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s and also includes fruits in its diet. It forages actively, usually from the forest's understory up to about above the ground. It typically perches on a sloping branch and makes short sallies to grab prey from leaves and twigs. It typically forages singly or in pairs and rarely joins

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 ...

Breeding

The restinga tyrannulet breeds between September and January. Females take about 19 days to build the nest, a closed ball of moss and spider web lined with dry grass and seed fluff. It typically is in or suspended from a branch fork between about above the ground. The clutch size is two or three eggs. Females alone incubate, for about 12 days, though males remain near the nest. The time to fledging is not known. Both parents provision nestlings.Gussoni, C. O. A., and M. A. Pizo (2018). "Breeding biology of the Restinga Tyrannulet (''Phylloscartes kronei'')". ''Wilson Journal of Ornithology'' 130:591–599.

Vocalization

The restinga tyrannulet's song is a "very high, fast, twittering series" written as ''sit-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-sitit-sitit''. Its call is a "very high 'swee' ".

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 1994 assessed the restinga tyrannulet as Vulnerable and since August 2019 as being of Least Concern. Its range is estimated at but it is thought to actually occupy only about within that range. Its estimated population of between 2500 and 10,000 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. "Within its range, suitable habitat is rapidly cleared for beachfront dwellings and tourist developments, notably on

Ilha Comprida Ilha Comprida (Portuguese for "Long Island") is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. Stretching southwest along the Atlantic coast of the state, it is coextensive with the barrier island of Ilha Comprida, the longest of its kind in ...

, and future pressure on restingas are likely to be great. Deliberately or accidentally started fires are also a threat." The species is known to occur in at least 11 protected areas.

References

External links

Restinga tyrannulet photo gallery
VIREO {{Taxonbar, from=Q1259930 restinga tyrannulet Birds of the Atlantic Forest Endemic birds of Brazil restinga tyrannulet Taxonomy articles created by Polbot