Scale-crested pygmy tyrant
The scale-crested pygmy tyrant is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, native to the American Cordillera.
Taxonomy and systematics
The scale-crested pygmy tyrant was originally described in 1844 as Euscarthmus pileatus. It was later moved into Lophotriccus. Several authors have suggested that genus Lophotriccus should be merged into genus Hemitriccus.The scale-crested pygmy tyrant has these five subspecies:
- L. p. luteiventris Taczanowski, 1884
- L. p. santaeluciae Todd, 1952
- L. p. squamaecrista
- L. p. pileatus
- L. p. hypochlorus Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1906
Description
The scale-crested pygmy tyrant is long and weighs about. It has long crown feathers that form the eponymous crest and that it sometimes erects and fans. Females have a smaller crest than males but the sexes otherwise have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies L. p. pileatus have a black crest with rufous edges on the feathers. They have whitish lores on an otherwise brownish face. Their back, rump, and uppertail coverts are olive. Their wings are dusky with yellow edges on the flight feathers and buffy tips on the coverts; the latter show as two wing bars. Their tail is dusky. Their throat and upper breast are white with blurry dusky to olive streaks. The rest of their underparts have a light yellow wash with a pale olive wash on the flanks. They have a yellow iris, a gray bill, and pinkish legs and feet.The other subspecies of the scale-crested pygmy tyrant differ from the nominate and each other thus:
- L. p. luteiventris: brown crown with rufous edges, olive-green edges on primaries, yellowish white edges on secondaries and tertials, grayish white to olive green tips on wing coverts; orange-yellow to yellow iris with reddish rim
- L. p. santaeluciae: olive edges on flight and tail feathers, yellowish tips on wing coverts, yellowish white to pale yellow breast and throat with blurry olive gray streaks
- L. p. squamaecrista: greenish edges on wing coverts forming faint wing bars, wider and darker streaks on throat and breast and paler yellowish flanks than nominate
- L. p. hypochlorus: deeper yellow underparts than nominate with greenish tinge on breast and flanks and bright yellow belly
Distribution and habitat
The scale-crested pygmy tyrant has a disjunct distribution. The subspecies are found thus:- L. p. luteiventris: from Costa Rica on the Caribbean slope the length of the country and on the Pacific slope from San José Province south through Panama to eastern Darién Province;
- L. p. santaeluciae Serranía del Perijá straddling the Colombia/Venezuela border; northwestern and northern Venezuela from Táchira to Anzoátegui
- L. p. squamaecrista: Andes of Colombia continuing south on western slope through Ecuador
- L. p. pileatus eastern slope of the Andes through Ecuador into Peru as far as Junín Department
- L. p. hypochlorus: Peru from Cuzco Department south to Puno Department;