Rufous-crowned tody-flycatcher
The rufous-crowned tody-flycatcher is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The rufous-crowned tody-flycatcher was originally described as Todirostrum ruficeps. Genus Poecilotriccus was erected for it and several other species in 1884. The species was long called the rufous-crowned tody-tyrant. By the early twenty-first century genus Poecilotriccus had species called both "tody-tyrant" and "tody-flycatcher" so taxonomic systems began renaming the "tyrants" to "flycatcher".The rufous-crowned tody-flycatcher has these four subspecies:
One author has suggested that two or more of the subspecies may represent full species.
Description
The rufous-crowned tody-flycatcher is about long and weighs about. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies P. r. ruficeps have a bright rufous crown and a gray nape that are separated by a black line that continues onto the cheek. They have a white to buffy area above the lores, a thin black line through the eye, and white to buffy cheeks. Their back, rump, and uppertail coverts are olive. Their wings are black with yellowish white edges on the flight feathers and yellow tips on the coverts; the latter show as two thin wing bars. Their tail is olive-brown. Their throat and upper breast are buffy whitish with a faint dusky or blackish band under the breast. The rest of their underparts are bright yellow. Juveniles have paler throats than adults. Subspecies P. r. rufigenis has a very faint or no black line on the cheek. P. r. peruvianus has bolder black markings on the face and a whiter throat than the nominate. P. r. melanomystax has whitish cheeks; the black line on the nape widens onto the sides of the neck. All subspecies have a dark brown iris, a black bill, and gray legs and feet.Distribution and habitat
The rufous-crowned tody-flycatcher has a disjunct distribution. The subspecies are found thus:- P. r. melanomystax: Andes in northern Mérida and eastern Trujillo states in western Venezuela and south in Colombia's Eastern Andes of Cundinamarca Department and Central Andes to Valle del Cauca Department
- P. r. ruficeps: from southern Táchira in far southwestern Venezuela south through all three ranges of the Colombian Andes and the east slope of the Andes of Ecuador to Loja Province
- P. r. rufigenis: western slope of the Andes from Nariño Department in far southwestern Colombia and into Ecuador as far as Azuay Province
- P. r. peruvianus: from Loja and Zamora-Chinchipe provinces in Ecuador into Peru's Piura and Cajamarca departments