The white-eyed tody-tyrant (''Hemitriccus zosterops'') 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 found in

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 ...

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 ...

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

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 ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

.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 white-eyed tody-tyrant has two subspecies, the

nominate Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In th ...

''H. z. zosterops'' ( Pelzeln, 1868) and ''H. z. flaviviridis'' ( Zimmer, JT, 1940). The species had a complicated taxonomic history from its original description to late in the twentieth century. It was described as ''Euscarthmus zosterops''. It was later moved to genus ''Idioptilon'', and later still both ''Euscarthmus'' and ''Idioptilon'' were merged into ''Hemitriccus''. In the early twentieth century some authors treated what is now the white-eyed tody-tyrant as a subspecies of the

stripe-necked tody-tyrant The stripe-necked tody-tyrant (''Hemitriccus striaticollis'') is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Taxonomy and systematics The stripe-necked tody-tyrant has ...

(''H. striaticollis''). And what is now the white-bellied tody-tyrant (''H. griseipectus'') was for a time treated as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with the white-eyed.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

Description

The white-eyed tody-tyrant is about long and weighs . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have an olive-green crown and nape. They have a whitish spot above the lores and an indistinct 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 grayish olive face. Their back and rump are olive-green. Their wings are dusky with bright olive-yellow edges on the flight feathers and yellowish tips on the

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 ...

; the latter show as two distinct

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 dusky olive. Their throat is gray with dusky streaks, their breast and flanks are streaked with olive and yellow, and their belly is unstreaked pale yellow. Subspecies ''H. z. flaviviridis'' has brighter, more yellowish green upperparts than the nominate and stronger yellow streaking on the underparts. Both subspecies have a pale gray or straw-yellow (or sometimes reddish brown) iris, a black bill with a pinkish 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 dark gray legs and feet.Clock, B. M. (2020). White-eyed Tody-Tyrant (''Hemitriccus zosterops''), 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.wettyr1.01 retrieved January 22, 2025

Distribution and habitat

The white-eyed tody-tyrant is a bird of the northern

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

. The nominate subspecies is by far the more widespread. It is found from

Caquetá Department Caquetá Department () is a department of Colombia. Located in the Amazonas region, Caquetá borders with the departments of Cauca and Huila to the west, the department of Meta to the north, the department of Guaviare to the northeast, th ...

in southeastern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador into northeastern Peru's

Department of Loreto Loreto () is Peru's northernmost department and region. Covering almost one-third of Peru's territory, Loreto is by far the nation's largest department, slightly smaller than Japan; it is also one of the most sparsely populated regions due to ...

and from Colombia east across Venezuela's southern Amazonas State,

the Guianas The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, are a geographical region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, formerly British, Dutch, and French Guiana respectiv ...

, and most of northern Brazil north of the Amazon. Subspecies ''H. z. flaviviridis'' is found only in northern Peru west of the Napo and

Ucayali The Ucayali River (, ) is the main headstream of the Amazon River. It rises about north of Lake Titicaca, in the Arequipa region of Peru and becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañón close to Nauta city. The city of Pucallpa is lo ...

rivers from central

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 ...

south to Cuzco Department. The species inhabits humid '' terra firme'' forest in lowlands and foothills. In elevation it reaches in Colombia, in Ecuador, in Peru, in Venezuela, and in Brazil.

Behavior

Movement

The white-eyed tody-tyrant is a year-round resident.

Feeding

The white-eyed tody-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 typically forages singly or in pairs, and only occasionally 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 ...

s. It feeds mostly in the forest's lower to middle levels, using short upward sallies from a perch to grab prey from vegetation.

Breeding

The white-eyed tody-tyrant's nest is reported anecdotally as pendant, but nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.

Vocalization

The white-eyed tody-tyrant's song is variously described as "a simple staccato 'pik, pik-pik-pik-pik' sometimes accelerated into 'pik-pik-pik-pikpikpikpik' ", "a higher note followed by a falling, rapid series ''PEEP-ip'ip'ip'ip'ip'', and as "a very high, short, very dry, sharp, slightly slowing and descending rattling trill". Its call is a "very high, sharp, dry 'pic' " or "a single 'pip' sometimes in a slow series".

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 white-eyed tody-tyrant as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range; its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered uncommon to locally fairly common overall, and is described as local in Colombia and Ecuador and locally common in Peru. It occurs in a few protected areas.

References

External links

"White-eyed tody-tyrant" photo gallery
VIREO] {{Taxonbar, from=Q1261115 Hemitriccus, white-eyed tody-tyrant Birds of Northern Amazonia white-eyed tody-tyrant Taxonomy articles created by Polbot