Saffron-crested Tyrant-manakin - Neopelma chrysocephalum

Saffron-crested Tyrant-manakin (Neopelma chrysocephalum)

Saffron-crested Tyrant-manakin, BR 174 - Km 44, Manaus, Brazil, July 2001 - click for larger image

BR 174 - Km 44, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil
July 2001

The Saffron-crested Tyrant-manakin is found in eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela, the Guianas and Brazil north of the river Amazon. It seems to favour areas of sandy soil and is quite numerous at this campina site north of Manaus.

From below (the angle from which I normally see birds!) it could be confused with Greenish Elaenia (Myiopagis viridicata) and it does look more like a flycatcher than a manakin.

However, note the orangish iris, the brownish flesh colour of the bill and the shorter tail. From above, things are easier since the Saffron-crested Tyrant-manakin has plain wings with no wing-bars and has a wide but semi-concealed yellow coronal stripe. The clincher is the strange nasal song.

There is an illustration in Hilty & Brown, Plate 32.

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