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Short-crested Flycatcher Myiarchus ferox Scientific name definitions

Leo Joseph
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 2004

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Introduction

The Short-crested Flycatcher is a resident of clearings, river-edge forest and cerrado across the Amazon Basin from Venezuela to Argentina.  The Short-crested flycatcher is a large and dark tailed Myiarchus that is smoky brown above, has a grey breast and throat and a yellow abdomen, undertail and underwing coverts.  The Short-crested Flycatcher is most often encountered singly or in pairs perched 4 to 7m in vegetation along forest edges.  These flycatchers feed mainly on insects which they catch with quick upward sallies and strikes from a perched position.

Field Identification

18 cm; male 21–33 g, female 23·5–34 g. A generally larger, dark-tailed, slightly crested Myiarchus, noticeably sooty-grey to darkish olive-green above. Nominate race is typically smoky brown above, little or no contrast between crown and upperparts; wings relatively plain dark brown, greater and median wing-coverts broadly tipped with paler fuscous-brown (tending paler on medians), outermost webs of tertials whitish-yellow to greyish (probably proportional to amount of wear); rectrices dark smoky brown, fringed with rufous only in fresh plumage; throat and breast grey (tending lighter on upper throat), grey extending onto lores and face, the latter darker grey than lores; abdomen and undertail-coverts yellow, tibial feathering olive-brown, underwing-coverts yellow; iris, bill and legs dark. Sexes similar. Juvenile has rufous tips on wing-coverts, rufous edges on innermost and outermost webs of tertials and outermost webs of rectrices. Races vary mainly in plumage tone, but complicated by extensive intergradation: brunnescens is lighter brown above than nominate, has more rufous fringing on rectrices (fresh plumage), upper flanks washed with olive-green; australis similar to previous, with crissum less brown.

Systematics History

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Formerly included M. venezuelensis and M. panamensis (which see). Geographical variation in present species complicated and poorly understood; further study needed. Plumage differentiation among races slight, and vast zones of intergradation currently recognized; populations in hybrid zone between nominate and brunnescens thought by some earlier authors to be migrant australis, but this is refuted by their having different breeding and moult schedules (many intermediate birds, however, distinguishable from australis only through these differences in timing). Three subspecies currently recognized.

Subspecies

SUBSPECIES

Myiarchus ferox brunnescens Scientific name definitions

Distribution

core range a narrow belt of llanos in SW Venezuela (Táchira and Portuguesa E to NW Bolívar) and extreme NE Colombia (Arauca).
SUBSPECIES

Myiarchus ferox ferox Scientific name definitions

Myiarchus ferox ferox
M. f. ferox

Distribution

Amazon Basin (from E slopes of Andes in S Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and N Bolivia) E to E and S Venezuela, the Guianas and Brazil.
SUBSPECIES

Myiarchus ferox australis Scientific name definitions

Myiarchus ferox australis
M. f. australis

Distribution

lowlands from SE Bolivia, C Brazil (through S Mato Grosso, S Goiás, S Minas Gerais) and S through drainages of R Paraguay, R Paraná and R Uruguay to Argentina (S to S Corrientes) and extreme SW Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil); possibly also N and W Uruguay.

Distribution

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Habitat

Clearings in forested areas, woodland borders, cerrado, várzea, igapó, riparian woodland and agricultural areas. In primary successional gradient associated with a white-water river in Peru, inhabited monocultures of the woody composite Tessaria and also Tessaria invaded by the cane Gynerium sagittatum. Tropical zone mostly below 500 m but up to 1000 m; record at 1375 m in Peru (Cuzco), possibly a response to forest clearance.

Movement

Sedentary.

Diet and Foraging

Insects and fruits; recorded food items in Surinam beetles (Coleoptera), hemipterans, including heteropteran stink or assassin bugs (Reduviidae), and Capsicum berries. Analysis of 38 prey items taken from stomachs in SE Peru gave: Hymenoptera (ants 21%, bees and wasps 16%); Hemiptera (Pentatomidae 24%, other 6%); Homoptera (cicadas 13%, planthoppers 3%); Diptera (11%); Orthoptera (3%); and Coleoptera (3%). Forages singly or in pairs, scanning from perches in middle and lower levels; average perch height recorded as 4·7 m in forest edge and 2·1 m in savanna. In Amazonian savanna, forages mostly by upward-striking in vegetation; along ­Peruvian river-edges, forages with upward strikes and outward hover-gleans 1–4 m above ground within and at edges of shrubby growth.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Short, slowly vibrato-modulated whistles given infrequently during foraging; vocal response to intruding conspecifics comprises rasping whistles, hiccups, and sometimes strident rattles; a rattle call given in response to playback, unique in genus. Dawn song comprises isolated whistles with vibrato modulation, identical to sounds made while foraging during day.

Breeding

Nominate race and australis breed mainly Jul–Dec; nests with eggs in Surinam populations currently ascribed to nominate found Oct–Dec (one exceptional report of eggs in mid-Apr), nine specimens of nominate from N Brazil (Amapá, Belém) in Jul and Sept–Nov have enlarged gonads, three Dec birds from Guyana have gonads enlarged (one female, one male) or, possibly, regressing (one female); brunnescens and populations currently considered intermediate between it and nominate (all or most of which are N of equator) breed Mar–May, thus when S populations of nominate and australis are in fresh plumage or completing annual moult. Nest typical of genus, in tree cavity and lined with feathers, fur and shed skin of snakes and lizards, lining also recorded as including plant material (“paina”) from two species of Asclepiadaceae, grasses, palm fruits and various unidentified leaves and roots; layers of lining suggest that nests reused; recorded nests in natural sites have been low, one (in Surinam) was in a low Curatella americana, others (in Mato Grosso, in Brazil) were 1 m and 1·3 m above ground in angled tree trunk over water. Clutch 2 eggs (Surinam) or 3 eggs (Mato Grosso, Brazil); no information on incubation and fledging periods. Nests probably parasitized by Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis).

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern
Not globally threatened. Fairly common to common. Estimated population density in primary successional habitat in Peru 56·5 birds/100 ha (both in monocultures of Tessaria and in Tessaria invaded by Gynerium sagittatum). Thrives in secondary and more open habitats; possibly increasing and expanding range as a result of deforestation. Occurs in many national parks and other protected areas throughout its large range.
Distribution of the Short-crested Flycatcher - Range Map
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Distribution of the Short-crested Flycatcher

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Joseph, L. (2020). Short-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus ferox), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.shcfly1.01
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