Streaked Flycatcher

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Streaked Flycatcher

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Subclass: Neornithes
Infraclass: Neognathae
Superorder: Neoaves
Order: Passeriformes
Suborder: Tyranni
Infraorder: Tyrannides
Family: Tyrannidae
Genus: Myiodynastes
Species: M. maculatus
Binomial name
Myiodynastes maculatus
(Statius Muller, 1776)

The Streaked Flycatcher, Myiodynastes maculatus, is a passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It breeds from eastern Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago south to Bolivia and Argentina. The southern subspecies M. m. solitarius migrates to Venezuela and the Guianas from March to September during the austral winter.

The Streaked Flycatcher is 22 cm long, weighs 43g and has a strong black bill. The head is brown with a concealed yellow crown patch, white supercilium and dusky eye mask. The upperparts are brown with darker brown streaks on the back, rufous and white edges on the wings, and wide chestnut edges on the rump and tail. The underparts are yellowish-white streaked with brown.

Sexes are similar, but immature birds are brown where the adult is black. M. m. solitarius has black rather than brown streaking above and below. The Streaked Flycatcher is a conspicuous bird, with a noisy sqEEE-zip call.

This species is found at the edges of forests and cocoa plantations. Streaked Flycatchers eat a range of food items, mostly large insects, but also lizards and berries. It perches on a high watchpoint from which it sallies forth to catch insects in mid-flight or off plants using a range of aerobatic maneuvers, and occasionally gleans prey from the vegetation[1]. The wintering southern migrants seem to include a considerable amount of fruit in their diet.

The nest is an open cup of twigs and grasses placed in a tree hollow or sometimes a bromeliad. The female builds the nest and incubates the typical clutch of two or three creamy-white eggs, which are marked with red-brown spots, for 16-17 days to hatching. Both sexes feed the chicks, which fledge in a further 18-21 days.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ de A. Gabriel & Pizo (2005)

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