The spectacled bristle tyrant (''Pogonotriccus orbitalis'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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 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 flycatchers. It is found in

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 ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

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 ...

, and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

.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. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved November 26, 2024

Taxonomy and systematics

The spectacled bristle tyrant was originally described as ''Capsiempis orbitalis''. It was later moved into genus ''

Pogonotriccus ''Pogonotriccus'' is a genus of small passerine birds in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. They are found in wooded habitats of Central America, Central and South America. Taxonomy The genus was erected by the German ornithologists Jean C ...

'', which was still later merged into genus ''

Phylloscartes ''Phylloscartes'' is a genus of small birds in the family Tyrannidae. They are found in wooded habitats of Central America, Central and South America. They mainly feed on small arthropods, and most commonly take part in mixed species flocks. The ...

''. Beginning in 2016 taxonomic systems resurrected ''Pogonotriccus'' for this species and a few others.BirdLife International (2016) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 9. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/BirdLife_Checklist_Version_90.zip xls zipped 1 MBClements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/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 31 May 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved June 1, 2023 The spectacled bristle 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 spectacled bristle tyrant is long and weighs about . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a gray crown, yellowish white lores, and a prominent yellowish 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 ...

on an otherwise mottled yellowish face. Their 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 ...

have a blackish crescent at the rear. Their back and rump are olive. Their wings are dusky with pale yellow edges on the flight feathers. Their wing coverts are dusky with pale yellow tips that 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 tail is olive. Their throat and underparts are bright yellow with a very light olive wash on the breast. Both sexes have a brown iris, a long, pointed, bill with a blackish

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 ...

and a mostly whitish to pinkish white

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.Fitzpatrick, J. W. (2022). Spectacled Bristle-Tyrant (''Pogonotriccus orbitalis''), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (N. D. Sly, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.spbtyr1.01.1 retrieved December 5, 2024

Distribution and habitat

The spectacled bristle tyrant has a

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 ...

. One population is found from

Putumayo Department Putumayo () is a departments of Colombia, department of Southern Colombia. It is in the south-west of the country, bordering Ecuador and Peru. Its capital is Mocoa. The word ''putumayo'' comes from the Quechua languages. The verb ''p'utuy'' ...

in far southern Colombia into northern Ecuador as far as

Orellana Province Orellana () is an inland Provinces of Ecuador, province of Ecuador. The capital is Puerto Francisco de Orellana (also known as Coca). It was created on July 30, 1998, from part of Napo Province. The name of the province derives from the explore ...

. A second is found in far southeastern Ecuador's

Zamora-Chinchipe Province Zamora Chinchipe (), Province of Zamora Chinchipe is a province of the Republic of Ecuador, located at the southeastern end of the Amazon Basin, which shares borders with the Ecuadorian provinces of Azuay and Morona Santiago to the north, Loja ...

and slightly into northern Peru. The third is found on the eastern slope of the Andes from southern

Amazonas Department Amazonas Department may refer to: * Amazonas (Colombian department), the Colombian department of Amazonas * Amazonas (Peruvian department), the Peruvian department of Amazonas * Department of Amazonas (Peru–Bolivian Confederation), the department ...

in northern Peru south through the country into Bolivia as far as

Cochabamba Department Cochabamba (, , ), from Quechua ''qucha'' or ''qhucha'', meaning "lake", ''pampa'' meaning "plain", is one of the nine departments of Bolivia. It is known to be the " granary" of the country because of its variety of agricultural products from ...

. It inhabits humid

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

in the foothills and subtropical zone, mostly below the level of

cloudforest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, ...

. It favors dark wet ravines, and typically remains in the forest interior. In elevation it ranges between in Colombia, between in Ecuador, and between in Peru.

Behavior

Movement

The spectacled bristle tyrant is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The spectacled bristle tyrant feeds 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. It forages in the forest's understory up into the mid-story, typically perching upright and making short upward sallies to snatch or hover-glean prey from vegetation. It usually forages singly and in pairs and sometimes as part of a

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 spectacled bristle tyrant apparently breeds between September and December in Peru. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.

Vocalization

What is thought to be the spectacled bristle tyrant's song is "a rising series of high notes" ''pit-ti TU-TI-TEE''". Its calls include "thin ''pit-tew'' notes" and "a thin, high, dry, descending trill, rising slightly at end: ''ti'tiiiiiiiiir''".

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 spectacled bristle tyrant as being of Least Concern. It has a large range; its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered local in Colombia, "scarce" in Ecuador, and "uncommon to locally fairly common" in Peru. It occurs in at least two protected areas in Bolivia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q27075162 spectacled bristle tyrant Birds of the Yungas spectacled bristle tyrant Taxonomy articles created by Polbot