Common Tody-flycatcher

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Common Tody-Flycatcher

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae
Genus:	Todirostrum
Species:	T. cinereum

Binomial name

Todirostrum cinereum
(Linnaeus, 1766)

The Common Tody-Flycatcher or Black-fronted Tody-flycatcher, Todirostrum cinereum, is a very small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It breeds from Mexico to northwestern Peru, eastern Bolivia and southern Brazil.

It is a very common inhabitant in gardens, shady plantations, second growth and the edges and clearings of forest, although it avoids the dense interior of mature woodland and also arid areas. It breeds from sea level to 1150 m altitude, locally 1500 m. Both male and female build a pouch nest with a visored side entrance, which is suspended from a thin branch or vine 1-5 m high in a tree, occasionally up to 30 m. The female incubates the two usually unspotted white eggs for 15-16 days to hatching.

The Common Tody-Flycatcher is a tiny, big-headed bird, 9.5-10.2 cm long, weighing 6.5-6.8 g, and with a long straight black bill. The upper head is black, shading to dark grey on the nape and dark olive-green on the rest of the upperparts. The usually cocked tail is black with white tips, and the wings are blackish with two yellow wing bars and yellow edging to the feathers. The underparts are entirely yellow. Sexes are similar, but young birds have a greyer upper head, buff wing markings, and paler underparts.

The Common Tody-Flycatcher is usually seen in pairs, hunting small insects in rapid dashes. It often wags its tail as moves sideways along branches.

Males of this species have a rapid grasshopper-like ticking te’e’e’e’e’e’t call something like a Tropical Kingbird, and a dawn song consisting of a very fast high tic repeated up to 110 times a minute for minutes on end.