Eye-ringed flatbill
The eye-ringed flatbill is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Mexico, every Central American country, and Colombia.
Taxonomy and systematics
The eye-ringed flatbill was originally described in 1847 as Cyclorhynchus brevirostris. It has three subspecies, the nominate R. b. brevirostris, R. b. pallidus, and R. b. hellmayri. For a time in the early twentieth century what is now the Pacific flatbill was also treated as a subspecies.Description
The eye-ringed flatbill is long and weighs. The sexes have almost the same plumage. Adults have a bold white eye-ring, a faint dark smudge below the eye, grayish lores and cheeks, and a dusky patch behind grayish ear coverts. The rest of their head and their entire upperparts are olive-green. Their wings and tail are dusky with paler yellow-olive edges on the feathers. Males have stiff comb-like barbs on the outer primaries; females lack them. In both sexes the throat and upper breast are dull to dusky olive-green that becomes paler and has pale grayish yellowish streaks on the lower breast and sides. Their belly is pale yellow. Subspecies R. b. pallidus is slightly paler than the nominate but otherwise the same. R. b. hellmayri is overall darker than the nominate and has a darker yellow belly. Both sexes of all subspecies have a dark iris, a large wide and flat bill with a black maxilla and pale horn mandible, and gray legs and feet.Distribution and habitat
The eye-ringed flatbill has a disjunct distribution. The nominate subspecies is by far the most widespread of the three. It is found from southern Veracruz, eastern Oaxaca, and the Yucatán Peninsula in southern Mexico south on the Pacific slope through western Guatemala into El Salvador. In the east it is found south from Mexico through Belize, central and eastern Guatemala, eastern Nicaragua, and eastern Costa Rica into Panama to Veraguas Province. It also occurs on the Pacific slope from west-central Costa Rica south and across northern Panama to merge with the eastern Panama part of its range. Subspecies R. b. pallidus is found on the Pacific slope of Mexico in western Oaxaca and probably further north in adjoining Guerrero. R. b. hellmayri is found from Darién Province in eastern Panama slightly into Chocó Department in extreme northwestern Colombia.The eye-ringed flatbill inhabits the interior and edges of humid evergreen and semi-deciduous forest, cloudforest, and nearby secondary forest. It mostly occurs from the upper edge of the forest understory to its mid-level, and especially favors shady ravines. In Mexico and most of Central America it ranges from sea level to, in Panama between, and in Colombia between.